The Devil and Its Rider
by Element-Crystal
Summary: Taking place 10 years after the movie, a dragon and its mysterious rider find themselves stranded on the island of Berk. However, her enemy stalks them to the Viking village as Kelda finds herself in a dangerous struggle for her life. OC x Tuff fluff.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**AN - The (page break) thing is explained in chapter 2.**

The wind roared in my ears as I rode Falkor across the skies. Ever faster he went as the cruel dragon behind us continued to shorten our distance. Falkor's sleek body sliced through the chilled air like a perfectly shot arrow. The Black Devil behind us sounded its bone-chilling siren and shot another demonic fireball towards us. My dragon spun on its side and moved to the right, allowing me to glance back to see the demon close behind us. Its rider, having previously run out of arrows, watched menacingly, pushing his dragon on.

"Come on, we need to shake him!" I yelled to my own dragon, although it was impossible. They'd chased us out onto open sea and we were out of our better element. The two of us were best suited to ambushing with speed being our next best advantage. However, this one's advantage was pure speed. That and its remarkable fireballs. They exploded on contact in a jet of blue fire, expanding on all sides in a great orb. The demon had already dueled with Falkor in the air, leaving him with a damaged right arm and underside.

Ahead, I saw a small island in the midst of the cold waters that rose like a gleaming beacon of hope for us. I urged my mount faster until he could no more. That's when Falkor began to lag. His strength had deteriorated and with the rider behind us, it was only a matter of time until we were knocked from the sky and into the icy depths.

Another scream behind us and I was nearly knocked off when Falkor flipped over to take the fireball for me. I gripped onto his scales the best I could until he leveled out again.

The island grew closer, just as the dragon behind us did. However, the Black Devil had finally caught up. It flew overhead and its lashed out at Falkor's wings, biting and scratching to the best of its abilities. The beast slashed open the wing of my dragon and we were sent plumetting. The island was below us now, however, as we flew over a cliffside. I yelled instructions to my dragon, "Grab the branches, we need to break our fall!"

And so he did. He latched on to the first branch, which broke like a twig under his weight. The second, third, and fourth was just the same. On the fifth, it held up a moment longer before it gave way. It kept on until we encountered one sturdy branch. We swung vertically and I gripped onto Falkor's tan scales before we were falling again. Suddenly, the ground sprung up to meet us and as my dragon's front feet slammed on the ground, my head smacked into the back of his sturdy neck. That's when I felt myself falling again.

**(page break)**

Everything was sore... There was an unusual warmth to the air. It felt good, and I could smell the pleasant aroma of burning wood. Did Falkor build a fire for me? That was nice of him. Although it's so quiet.

I shifted around in my spot and felt the ground was very soft. Too soft. I opened my eyes and looked around. There was plenty of wood around, but none of it belonged to the trees. Sitting up, my head began pounding and I fought the desire to lay back down. This room was completely foreign to me, and I found my fur boots and quiver lying by my bed. Pulling my boots on, I found my dagger was still in place inside, thankful it was discreet enough to go unnoticed by anyone. No doubt the other dragon rider took me as his prisoner.

Creeping across the floor, I glanced around for my bow, although it wasn't to be found in here. I opened the door and entered the main room. Here the fire burned bright and illuminated the otherwise dark room. Brushing my thick, brown braid back over my shoulder, I looked down to see a chair by the fire. There, a lone figure sat, fiddling with a broken bow. Its intricately carved black wood glistened in the firelight. I saw it was broken in half. Creeping down the large stairs and across the room, I came up behind the man. I took the knife from my boot and held it up, poised to strike. Mere feet away, I took another step and the floor creaked audibly under my weight. The man turned his head about and leapt up from the chair upon seeing the blade. I jumped over the chair and he ducked aside, behind a tall, wooden pillar. I darted towards him and he ran off to my left. That's when I grabbed the pillar, spun around its base, and tackled him. There I straddled him, arms pinned beneath my knees, and my knife raised.

"You think you can just capture me and everything would be all right?! I can't believe you didn't think I'd have a blade hidden on my person! You outta die right here and right now, filthy troll!" I yelled at him and saw the fear in his eyes. To be honest, the man was much thinner than he appeared before. He was a little thing with somewhat long, brown hair and a fur vest over a green, woolen shirt. His olive green eyes watched me as I did him and before I could bring the blade down, I was knocked off him and pinned to the floor. Above me stood the very dragon that was chasing me before. He opened his toothless mouth and roared, only to glare at me with bright yellow eyes that threatened death if I so much as moved an inch.

"What was that for?!" The man gasped and clutched his heart. "I save your life and you thank me by trying to kill me? Are you crazy?" The man did his best to stand, clearly shaken by what just happened.

"Save my life? You're kidding me, right? You were just trying to kill me!" I hissed back.

"What? I wouldn't kill you. I don't even know who you are!"

"Why do you have this demon, then? A dozen times this monster tried to kill me, with you riding it. Or so I thought. But I could never mistake this face," I replied.

He scoffed, "Well, obviously, you have. We don't just go out hunting people. Besides, nobody else can ride Toothless." I stared, dumbfounded, at this man. Never had I seen another Black Devil, and I found it unlikely that there would be another one so close.

The dragon shifted his weight ever so slightly and pain coursed through me. I cried out in pain and began balling up around my left arm, dropping my knife. Tears formed in my eyes as the dragon step back from me. Examining my arm, it was wrapped tight in bandages with a long line of blood soaking the top of it.

"You're welcome..." The man said bitterly and turned away.

Rolling onto my knees, I sat crouched in the middle of the floor until the pain subsided. I stood up and tucked the knife back into my boot. Holding my arm, I turned to him and quietly said, "I'm sorry. You just look a lot like him… Who are you, anyways?"

"Uh, my name's Hiccup. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, to be exact," He said, patting the dragon on cue, "And this is Toothless."

"Toothless?"

"Yep. What's your name?"

"Kelda… You said you saved me?" I asked himand glanced around. I didn't see any sign of Falkor, nor did he bring him up yet.

Hiccup had limped over to the chair I'd knocked over. I noticed that he was missing a leg. "Yeah, I did."

"Did you see anyone else there?" I found myself staring at his false leg, mesmerized by its strange design.

"No, but there was obviously some kind of fight that happened nearby. I saw plenty of blood splattered about..." He sounded uneasy about the blood. For a moment, there was silence. "Yes, my leg is weird, you can stop staring at it, now..." He said.

"Sorry..." I said and looked away. "Um... Where did you find me?"

"On the side of a cliff, actually. You were lucky to be alive. You looked kinda beat up. Had some scratches along your right shoulder, too."

I reached a hand up to rest on my shoulder and hesitated before saying, "Can you take me back there? I need to know if Falkor is okay."

"Falkor? Is that your dad? 'Cause me and Toothless could go-"

"He's my dragon. Like _my_ father would have such a heroic name." I said, thinking back to my pathetic excuse for a father. Half-brained Horton, everyone called him. He ran off looking for the "kind gnomes that would help our crops grow." Horton never came back, and I was thankful to take after my mother.

Taken aback at first, Hiccup shrugged it off and said, "Parental trouble, huh? I know how that feels...My dad used to be like 'You need to be a better viking, son!', but killing dragons wasn't my thing. As you can tell." Hiccup said and chuckled to himself. He pulled a leather saddle over Toothless and tightened the straps, then pulled a long cord down the length of his dragon's body and attached it to his tail. When Hiccup opened the door outside, Toothless bounded out joyfully and I could see him stretch his wings out in the sun. "Oh, uh..." He began and ran back over to the chair. He picked up the bow and he held it out to me. "Sorry about this. It was already broken when I found you."

Clutching the beautiful wood of the bow in my hands, I sighed and said, "It's fine. I can... Make another later..."

I followed Hiccup outside and saw a vast array of colorful dragons. They crawled on and around the houses below and lined the cliffsides. They glided through the air and pelted each other with fireballs. Young vikings played with their own dragons in the grass while older vikings relaxed in a fire pit. A chill breeze blew across the island, but nobody here paid it mind. They were already used to such weather. The sight was amazing. I'd never seen anything like it. This village sat of the edge of the island by the open sea, which glittered in the daylight.

"Hey! You coming or not?" Hiccup called over. When I turned, I saw he was already mounted up. I ran over and reluctantly did the same, holding onto Hiccup's middle with my right arm so as not to fall off. And when Toothless leapt into the air, I nearly _was_ knocked off his back. The cold air rushed into my lungs with every breath and I felt uneasy riding this dragon. My memory thought only of the demon and the rider that chased me here.

**(page break)**

Toothless planted his feet and I leapt off his back, eager to get away. Turning back, I saw Hiccup's surprised expression. "He's not gonna bite," He said and unhooked his false foot from the stirrup. The cord extending to the dragon's tail fin drooped and I noticed it had an injury of its own. Where a sleek, black tailfin should be was a bright red false tailfin, decorated with a skull. It made sense why only Hiccup could fly this dragon now.

Shaking the feeling, I looked around and examined everything in sight. The trees, the cliffside, the rocks, and the earth. Each had signs of a great struggle. First, the earth, where there was a noticable indent in the ground, and scraping claws leading over the edge of the cliff. I felt my right shoulder shoulder for the scrapes and imagined myself a ragdoll, flying over the edge, Falkor reaching out and grabbing me in his teeth. I saw splinters of black wood strewn in a spot where I suspected I was thrown off my mount. There was blood stains on the tip of a rock, jutting out of the cliff-face. I ran my hand over the wound with understanding. Turning around, I looked at the trees and the earth and the rocks. There was more blood here, no doubt belonging to my dragon. A few trees had been knocked down on one side of the area, and there were scorch marks in a dozen different places. With a trained eye, I looked over every single detail, crouching in the dirt to get a closer look. Then I found it. A trail of blood leading away from the struggle. I took off after it, following with a quick eye as it veered downhill. Over rocks and through crevices in the earth. I was sprinting through the trees as I followed it. The familiar smell of burning wood that lingered on Falkor's brilliant scales led me on.

"Hey! Wait up!" I heard the distant voice of Hiccup, the bounding run of Toothless much closer behind me. It stopped for a bit while the dragon surely waited for its rider. Then things grew quiet as the trail dissapeared and I looked around the area with a sinking feeling. Was I following the wrong bloodtrail? Or did Falkor try to fly off?

Gone. It was gone. I sighed and looked around, hoping to pick up the trail again. But there was nothing.

Toothless landed just behind me and I wheeled around, surprised. This time, Hiccup stayed on Toothless's back. I thought for a moment before asking him, "Does your dragon track?"

"Track? What do you mean?" Hiccup said.

I gave him a funny look and said, "You know, follow scent trails?"

"I have no idea, we've never had to before."

With a thoughtful hum, I ran a hand through the soil and picked up some blood from what I thought was Falkor. Despite my uneasiness, I was able to step close to Toothless for him to be able to catch the scent. "You smell this blood? Can you find a similar one leading away from here?" I said a bit slow, just in case the dragon wasn't sure what I was saying.

Probably out of instinct, the dragon's nose twitched as it picked up on the scent. With an understanding in his eyes, he started sniffing the air and leaned in close to me to pick up the smell of Falkor on me. Then Toothless walked around in a circle, ignoring the trail that led back uphill and took a route to his left. Perhaps Falkor simply managed to keep his blood from dripping anymore. It was baffling, but I followed Toothless as he trekked through the forest. He led us up a slight incline and then we stopped at a gully. Toothless, even with Hiccup on his back, cleared the gap easily, but I was left standing there. The ground was soft and a bit muddy, which would prove difficult. Calculating the distance between the two sides, I stepped back and then took off at a run. I leapt off the ground and threw my legs forward to plant them in the earth before me. I nearly fell backwards when I landed, but I held my arms in front of me to counter the weight.

When I balanced myself again, I looked up to see Toothless and Hiccup far ahead of me now. I was annoyed, but took off after them. The two stopped in a thick grove of trees ahead and I saw Toothless looking around. I slowed down and heard an unusual silence here that crept around us like darkness does in the night. When I got closer to Hiccup and Toothless, I heard a tree branch whip somewhere above and a large mass of mud-brown scales descend upon the two. Toothless darted forward to avoid the falling beast and a loud, guttural roar sounded from the trees.

"Falkor!" I cried.

He looked back at me for a moment and I saw those familiar green eyes. His two sets of chocolate horns protruding from the back of his head, angling back, and his long, rounded snout with its large pointed teeth. Not to mention the bloodied right arm from the Black Devil that stranded us here.

But then Falkor turned back to Hiccup and Toothless and growled. Realization hit me and I ran to my dragon's side as he reached his head out to snap at a snarling Toothless. He moved around to a new angle and opened his mouth wide. I leapt between Toothless and Falkor, holding my arms out to block him. Falkor, obviously confused, turned his head to the side and unleashed his hellfire into the trees.

Turning back to me, Falkor grumbled with frustration and bared his teeth once more. "No!" I yelled at him. "This isn't our enemy!" Looking back at Toothless, I saw him extending his wings to make himself appear larger, no doubt feeling threatened. Then I turned back to Falkor and reached up to take his head in my hands and stroke his forehead. Falkor's head was about the size of my torso, so I could hardly reach my arms around his face, but he calmed down as my hand ran across his head.

"I take it that's who you're looking for?" Hiccup said, standing beside Toothless, now.

"Yes," I smiled back to him. "Come, let him smell you."

Hiccup came up, slowly, "Yeah, because my first instinct is to approach a dragon that's about to kill me."

I chuckled and said, "Don't worry. Anyone I haven't killed is good in his eyes."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

I gently took his hand and brought it up to Falkor's snout, allowing him to take in the man's scent. Falkor made a content rumbling sound from his throat and walked around us to see Toothless. The black dragon was still a bit threatened and backed up some as my own dragon approached, but grudgingly allowed Falkor near him. Falkor looked over at me and made a funny sound that somewhat resembled a guttural bark. I laughed, "Yes, they're not the same people. Surprising, isn't it?"


	2. Chapter 2: Day 1

**AN - Ok, so I keep having problems with page breaking. It seems as though no matter what I do, unless I type out "page break" (which sounds completely stupid and annoying), I have no way of inserting proper page breaks. So I apologize for the very dumb looking thing that you have to look at for now. **

The birds sang from distant trees as the wind rustled the leaves. The walk back to Berk was a quiet one as we found ourselves at a loss for words. As Hiccup walked, his false leg screeched, the metal grinding against itself. It drove me mad, but I said nothing. I mean, what could I say? Take off your leg? Anything I could say would sound pretty bad. I was used to general silence, so it was strange to hear the two tramping through the fallen leaves without a care. They didn't realize how much noise they made. Falkor was a bit careless in his footsteps, as well. His large hands and feet swept across the ground with each step and his tail occassionally beat against a tree. Despite his limping, he was able to keep up.

Taking the initiative, I looked over at Hiccup and said, "Tell me. How did your Black Devil lose its tailfin?"

When he looked over at me, Hiccup had the most confused face I'd ever seen. "Black Devil?"

"You don't call them Black Devils? Well, I mean your dragon," I said.

"Toothless?" He glanced over his shoulder to the black reptile. "We call dragons like him 'Night Furies.' You call them 'Black Devils?'"

"Y-yeah," I said. "That's the, uh, dragon I mistook yours for..." _A mean brute that one is, too_, I thought to myself.

"Right."

We were quiet for another moment before I repeated, "So, how did Toothless lose his tailfin?"

"Oh, yeah," Hiccup said. "It was, what? Nine, ten years ago? Well, it was back when we were enemies with the dragons. I invented this little contraption to take down dragons with, and I ended up catching this guy. I guess it was ripped off when he crashed."

"You were enemies with the dragons?" I asked.

Hiccup smiled. "You may not believe it the way we are now, but we practically killed them for sport. Although the feeling was pretty mutual then."

Looking up at Falkor, I rubbed my hand down his neck and said, "I can't imagine being enemies with Falkor. How did you become friends with them?"

He would've answered my question had a blonde woman not come running towards us. She wore her hair back in a short braid, some of it falling over her eye in the front, and regarded us with bright blue eyes. When she finally reached us, she said, "Hiccup! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!" The woman turned towards me and put a hand to her hip. "Who's this?"

"My name's Kelda," I said. When Falkor pushed me with his nose, I laid a hand on his head and added, "And this is Falkor."

"I've never seen you around," she said.

"That's 'cause she fell out of the sky just today," Hiccup said. He walked over and put an arm around the woman's waist. "Kelda, this is my wife, Astrid."

"It's nice to meet you, Astrid," I said with a nod of my head.

"So, what did you want?" Hiccup said, taking his arm away from his wife.

"The new students are waiting to get their dragons," Astrid said. "You know we can't do it without you."

"Oh, by Thor! I can't believe I forgot about it! I guess I got so caught up helping Kelda out..." He chuckled. "Tell the students they'll just have to wait a bit longer."

Astrid sighed and started backing up. "Fine, but you'd better be quick. I don't think they'll wait another day." With that, she started heading back towards the village and a silence befell us again.

As we began walking again, I spoke up once more. "You help the young ones find their dragons?"

"Yeah, I'm the only person who speaks Dragonese, so everyone usually wants me there," Hiccup said.

"Dragonese?"

"Yeah, the language of the dragons. Nobody else wanted to learn it, so it's just me."

"I've never heard of such a thing," I said and glanced back at Falkor once again. _What a strange thing_, I thought. _To think I would be able to understand what you're saying..._

Within a few minutes of walking, one of Berk's houses broke through the trees along with the sound of roaring dragons and howling Vikings. I wondered, then, how many people actually lived in this place. It seemed like at least 50, guessing from the amount of buildings about. It was a wonder how they managed to feed everyone. "Finally!" Hiccup said as we grew closer. "Oughta hurry to the arena." That's when he started running. He ran in such a weird way, half-limping as his false leg took his weight. I allowed him to go on without me, deciding to hang back, in case Falkor couldn't keep up.

"Dragonese..." I said thoughtfully as I walked past the building and into Berk. Here, the area bustled as people worked, doing many different tasks. Down the road, I saw a few burly men repairing one of their houses; looking another way I saw a couple children lifting a stack of logs on their shoulders. Any previous thoughts were erased from my mind as I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here. Where I came from, we were a simple, close-knit group of nomads. Always wandering around our territory, never staying in the same place for long. Instead of growing crops, we took to gathering what we found. I carefully watched over my people, driving away any enemies daring to come to close.

"It's fine! I got this!" This was the only warning I got when something smacked me across the back of my head. By instinct, I turned around and punched the closest face I saw. This happened to belong to a man with long blonde hair and a helmet with two pairs of horns. A very similar looking woman caught him as I knocked him off his feet while a long, wooden plank fell to the ground.

"Watch it!" I said and continued on. Falkor grumbled.

"Ah, Odin! I think she broke my nose!" He cried as I was walking away. This was, indeed, a strange place to be.

Occasionally, someone would stop in their tracks to look at Falkor and me. It seems Hiccup managed to discreetly bring me into Berk the first time around. How nobody noticed was beyond me. But this time, everyone gave me a double-take as I walked between the houses, taking in my new surroundings. They looked so busy and hard at work, and if they weren't doing work, they were chatting with the others, having a good time.

The smell of mead overpowered me as a particularly large Viking stepped into my way, hands on his hips. "_Who_ are _you_?" The man said in a deep, bellowing voice.

I was stunned by the sheer size of this man. He stood at least a foot above me, which would put him nearly eye-to-eye with Falkor, and seemed to be about three times my size in width. At a loss for words, I began opening and closing my mouth, trying to speak.

"I ain't ever seen a littul lady like you, and you best be tellin' me yer name else you make me angrier!" He said with a heavy accent.

"K-K-Kelda...!" I stuttered, doing my best to back away, although merely leaning back.

"Just Kelda, eh? Well, _Kelda_, where in Midgard did _you_ come from?"

"Uh... Um..." I said. I glanced at Falkor, which was completely pointless. What help would he be in answering this question?

Then the Viking burst out laughing and grabbed me by the shoulder with a hand the size of my head. "Calm down! Yer shakin' like a leaf!"

I wasn't actually shaking, but I might as well be.

"Tha's a mighty dragon you got there! Ain't ever seen one like it," he pointed out. After a short moment of him studying us, he looked at me again."Don't tell me you're the lass that came in with Hiccup."

"I-I am..."

"No wonder I recognized ya! How funny that was. My boy was going on 'bout how you fell out'a the sky!" He laughed and started down the road after letting go of me. Then he turned back and said, "Aren't ya comin'?"

There was no reason why I shouldn't follow him, so I did. I figured this was Hiccup's father, taking a hint when the man said "my boy". Down the road was a large bonfire with a group of people gathered around it, telling epic tales of great Vikings past.

Although I was mistaken when I heard them saying, "But the Giantess refused to weep for Balder, saying that 'No tears will fall from my eyes for any...'" I recognized it as the tale of the death of Balder rather than about any Vikings. Such a sad tale that was, not to mention frightening for children. Sure, the story hasn't actually happened yet, and it's a wonder how these Vikings found out about their "fate", but it's not like I didn't believe it either.

We found ourselves outside two large doors built into a steep hillside. When the man opened the doors up, I saw that it must be the mead hall. It was surprisingly large inside and the room circulated around a central point. There was another fire here, although not so big and above was a chimney of sorts to allow the smoke outside. Falkor was actually too large to fit inside the doors and did his best to squeeze his wings close to himself, but to no avail. I gave him a quick pat on the nose to assure him of my return and continued following the man.

"Go ahead and have a seat," he said and motioned to a table beside him. "I'll be right back."

It was pleasantly warm here and found myself taking off my quiver and coat, revealing a dull blue shirt. Unlike most women of my time, I did not wear long, traditional dresses. At least, I did until Falkor chose me as his rider. When it happened, I didn't want such a thing, in fact I hated it. My people told me I couldn't be like the other women anymore, with their long, flowing hair and their glittering jewels. Sure, I did have long hair, but it was tied together in a braid that I tended to run my hands over when I was thinking. I yielded my jewelry and abandoned my dresses for wool pants and a wool and fur coat along with leather boots with fur at the top and a woolen shirt. Yes, it sounds repetitive and boring, but I wasn't allowed towear cotton and silk anymore. I didn't have that sort of status.

I was torn away from my thoughts when the man dropped at plate and a stein of mead on the table before me. There was a slice of meat that was too big for the metal sheet it sat upon and a very meager-looking fork and knife to cut it with.

"I got you one o' tha big pieces, since ya look like ya need some meat on dem bones," he said with a hearty laugh and proceeded to take a drink of mead from his own stein.

Knowing he had my best interests at heart, I laughed with him and took a drink of my own mead. I tore off a piece of lamb meat and stuffed it in my mouth. It was still warm and tasted good despite being tough to chew.

"So, what brings ya to tha Isle o' Berk? Don't tell me you're some kinda messenger with bad news?" He said as he started eating a chicken leg.

I chuckled. "No, I'm no messenger. Falkor's- Uh, my dragon's wing was torn open and we just sorta fell out of the sky."

"Well, that can't be good! I didn't think you were a messenger, anyways. No other Vikings take as well to dragons as we do, am I right?" He laughed heartily again.

"Yes, it's amazing that even _your_ lot have dragons." I laughed and took another drink of mead. The delicious honey was sweet and filled my belly with warmth compared to this otherwise cold place.

"Aye, and that's mighty dragon you have out there!" He waved at the now closed door, seeming to forget he'd already pointed that out. "Where on earth did ya find such a beaut'ee? Never seen one like it..."

"I don't know where he came from," I said. "My people say he just showed up one day with a strange woman on his back. It's a fantastic tale I heard when I was just a little girl."

"What happened to the woman?"

"She was killed. But she died in battle. We're certain that, even though she was a woman, she went to Valhalla, to fight alongside Odin and Thor." I shoved some more food into my mouth. "A true hero, they say she was."

"I ain't ever heard of a woman being a hero, let alone going to Valhalla, but to tame a dragon like that must be somethin' only the greatest o' warriors can do!" He laughed and stood up. "Sorry, miss, but I have things to do. Please. Stay awhile and rest 'til yer able to leave again. Better yet, take that dragon o' yers to our doctor and fix him up."

He started to leave but I called after him, "Wait! You never told me your name."

"I didn't now, did I?" The man turned around and positioned himself in a heroic pose. "I, littul miss, am Stoick the Vast! And it's a pleasure to meet ya, Kelda." Stoick turned about once more and left the mead hall.

Now that he was gone, I sat alone once more. Across the room, I could hear the laughter of some hardy men taking a break from their work and, from another direction, the sound of women conversing between themselves. I finished my lamb slice and downed the rest of my mead as fast as I could and stood up. Stoick had abandoned his, so I figured it was all right to leave mine. When I went back outside, there was a small crowd of people gathered around a very upset Falkor.

The dragon grumbled to them and they didn't pick up on his annoyance. Someone reached up and tugged at one of his smaller horns on the side of his head and he smacked them in the face as he turned to see who did it. I used my coat to swat the people away and yelled, "Stop pestering my dragon. Away with you lot!" The group complained but dispersed, leaving me to pull my coat back on and pat Falkor's shoulder. "They didn't bother you too much, did they?" He made a quiet, rumbling sound and shook his wings.

With another quick pat, I said, "Follow me," and went off in search of this doctor.

**(page break)**

Night was falling as Falkor and I sat by the doctor's house. The man, who I'd come to know as Old Wrinkly, had given me a sticky poultice so that I might save my dragon's wing. I had done this before. Twice, actually. And I might have made the poultice myself had I the proper tools and herbs. All my tools and supplies were back in my homeland, sitting by the abandoned campfire that I would be lighting right now if I were still there. Falkor sighed as I pulled the wing membrane together and applied the sticky paste over the still bleeding hole. For now, I had to stick paper between the paste and the membrane so the veins would be able to come back together. It was a difficult process and would take at least a week, seeing as the gaping hole ran down between the fourth and fifth fingers.

I was furious about that Black Devil. It took pride in slashing up Falkor's wings and would come at us on the ground. Granted the foolish beast seemed to forget it lost its advantage when on the ground.

The doctor returned from within his house and looked at us. "I see you can handle yourself just fine. I take it you've done this before?"

I nodded and continued my work.

"You don't have anywhere to sleep tonight, do you?"

I shook my head.

"You could sleep in here. I have peo-"

"No, I'd rather not."

"O-oh. Well, if you change your-"

"I'm not going to change my mind." I stopped my work and looked up at him. "All I would like is some firewood and a blanket."

"Let me get that for you, then," Old Wrinkly said and hurried away. It wasn't good to be to mean to the poor fellow, but I stopped enjoying living in houses long ago. The only time I wanted a roof over my head was when it rained or snowed. And even then, Falkor would merely cover me with his wing. Not to mention I'd grown to be claustrophobic.

Applying more of the poultice to Falkor's wing, I sighed as I thought about how I would get by here. I doubted the tailor would make me a new satchel or hip-bags and I doubted the woodworker would make me a new bow, either. Being a nomad, I was probably very strange to these Vikings. Although our religions did not vary so much, we still had our differences.

I didn't notice Old Wrinkly when he set three logs and a folded blanket at my feet. Although when I was finished with my careful work, I washed my hands in a bucket of water before picking them up and carrying them back uphill. I walked between the houses in the dimming light and thought it best to hurry unless I wanted to walk in the dark. Everyone was returning to their warm houses, ready to sleep and dream until morning came again. It was odd seeing such an empty place in comparison to how it was before.

I walked back behind the house I first passed when I arrived in Berk and found myself back in the wide field from before. While I didn't notice its vastness then, I was glad to have such a big space to myself. Positioning myself closer to the forest than to the village, I stomped down the grass in a large circle and began uprooting the grass in and just around the very center. When I was happy with everything, I set down the firewood and went off into the forest and gathered up a few fallen tree branches and dead leaves. I set up the campfire and laid down my blanket close to it. As I laid myself down, Falkor breathed fire into the wood and we watched as the flames caught. The warmth of the flames surrounded us as we lay there.

Sighing contentedly, I looked at Falkor. "Just like old times, eh?"

The dragon laid his head down and tucked his wings in. He sighed, as well and returned my look, giving me the answer in his eyes. While he did not allow himself to sleep just yet, Falkor's green eyes dragged me into darkness as I let myself drift away.


	3. Chapter 3: Day 2

**AN – All right. So this took a little longer than expected. Yes, the chapter may be a little lamer, but it'll pick up more soon. It was really troublesome to write, actually, since my mind didn't want to focus on it and I had a busy week, so that just makes it all the more annoying. Not sure if page breaks are working again or not, but I'm just going to keep typing it out just in case. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

The next day was icy as I awoke to a dead fire. The smell of morning dew hung in the air along with the lingering scent of the once burning wood. I shivered as I felt the desire to continue sleeping, although I knew better than to let myself fall back asleep. I opened my eyes to bright blue skies and little birds gliding in the air. Stretching my arms high above my head and arching my back, I slowly moved my stiff muscles to Falkor and began tapping on his nose playfully. It took him some time before he noticed my fingers drumming on his thick hide before he lazily opened his eyes and grumbled as he began waking up.

"Come on," I said. My voice was quiet, as I continued speaking. "Even though we aren't back home, we can't sleep in. Get up, now..."

I stood up and folded the blanket in a small square, setting it beside the campfire. As I waited for Falkor, I stretched my legs and picked up my quiver. My hands desired to grasp the wood of my longbow again, but were denied this as I left it behind, to be used as firewood when I needed it. I might have gone out in the forest that day, but who knows what's out there. There was no chance of me going back just yet, not after what happened yesterday.

When Falkor finally stood up and stretched himself out, I patted him on the nose and said, "Why don't we go find Hiccup. A friendly face would be nice, don't you think?"

As we walked back into the village, we found it bustling just as it had been the day before. It must have been that it was so late in the morning; the sun was climbing high into the sky. I couldn't help but yawn as I eased my way down the road. Before I could get anywhere, though, my stomach started growling and I stopped to look down at it.

Turning to Falkor, I smiled sheepishly. "Maybe a bite to eat would be nice first." So I turned down another way and headed to the mead hall. While I didn't enjoy just strolling in and taking what I wanted, I still needed something to eat. I just hoped that nobody would be mad at me for doing so.

I pulled my braid over my shoulder and ran my hands along its length as I turned to Falkor, "I'll be right back, ok? I'll get you something to eat, too." The dragon stopped just as we got outside the door to the mead hall and I opened the large doors, feeling a wave of heat hit me. It felt good as I walked inside. I marveled once more at the vastness of the room and found myself traveling to the far side of it to find the cooks. Quite a few people were still eating their breakfasts and watched as I walked by the tables.

I reached the opposite side of the room and found a long table with numerous plates of different meats, breads, and even a few vegetables here and there. I plucked a few lamb chops and stacked them on one plate and took a salmon for myself. The lamb chops were precariously perched on their plate and it was quite a balancing act as I made my way back to the door. That was until a man stopped me. He had short brown hair and the start of a beard and was very large, both in muscle and a little fat. He leaned against a table and was in my way enough to make it difficult to walk around him without dropping something.

"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around before," he said suggestively. "Not afraid to eat a lot, huh? That's pretty hot."

"And you are...?" I pryed.

He stood up and started to offer a hand, only to retract it due my situation. "I'm Snotlout. Chief's nephew, and probably future heir, too."

"Probably?"

"Well, my cousin Hiccup _is_ first in line, but there's no way he'd make a good Chief."

"So you're cousin's with Hiccup?"

He nodded with an annoyed look. "I wish he were _my_ cousin instead of the other way around..." His words were not well thought-out and it took him a moment before he realized what he said. That's when I pushed past him, nearly dropping all of Falkor's share into the floor and heard him call after me, "W-wait! That's not what I meant! Come back!"

I sighed and stopped, looking back to the poor man. He ran up and said, "Listen, why don't you go out on a date with me sometime?"

Date. I racked my brain for something, anything. Have I really been out in the woods for so long? There was a memory, granted it was very vague. Something about hanging out with a potential... Lover? I stood there for some time before I spoke again. "I'd rather not."

"Oh, c'mon! You gotta give me something!" Snotlout pleaded, but not in a necessarily sad manner.

I paused for a moment. Setting my plate down on the table beside me, I reached around to my quiver and plucked a tiny feather from the ends of one of the arrows. Then I held it out to Snotlout.

His face broke into disbelief, but he smiled, too. "That's not what I meant..." Snotlout said, humor in his voice.

"You asked for something, and I gave it. Now, if you please," I picked up my plate again and regarded him one last time. "I'll be leaving now." With that, I turned about and walked away. I pushed the doors back open with my side and found Falkor waiting patiently outside. Beside him, sat Hiccup, who had his hand hovering over Falkor's right leg. No doubt inspecting his wound.

I cleared my voice to announce my presence to him as I held the fuller plate out to Falkor. The dragon delicately picked it up with his good hand and pulled one of the lamb chops away with his jaws. He chewed the slab of meat up, bones and all, and swallowed it with an audible gulp.

Hiccup stared at me and smiled. "Sorry, just noticed your dragon and I figured you were around. What happened to you yesterday?" He stood up and leaned against Falkor, only to fall over when the dragon moved. Falkor wasn't always too kind to strangers and acquaintances.

I chuckled and put a hand to my hip. "Well, I decided to let you go ahead to... Uh, wherever you were going. I didn't think Falkor would want to start running around yet."

"My dad said that he liked my new girlfriend..." Hiccup said. He sounded unamused.

I stared at him for a minute, an amused smile on my face, before saying, "Your dad... That was Stoick?"

"He got me a meal last night and we talked for a bit, funny how he got 'new girlfriend' out of that," I laughed, but saw Hiccup was still unamused. I sighed, disheartened, and relaxed my pose. "Yeah... Not funny." Shoving some salmon into my mouth, I was quick to silence myself.

"Astrid was sitting there when he said it, so you can imagine how I might have felt," Hiccup said. I was relieved to hear he didn't sound annoyed or angry with me. There was a short moment of silence before he spoke again. "Listen, I came to ask you if you wanted to eat dinner with me and some of my friends tonight. I know you're gonna be here for a while, so you might as well get to know some of us."

"Your friends?" My voice was soft. Usually soft, actually.

_Friends_...

Falkor was my friend. My best friend, in fact. But he was the only one. I had forgotten what it was like to have human friends.

Hiccup had paused, noticing my change in tone. "Y-yeah..." He said, unsure of his words. "Just come down to the docks when it starts getting dark, all right?" Then he took off without another word.

What was there to do until then? I sat down beside Falkor and took a bite of my salmon. He took another whole lamb chop in his mouth and crunched it to pieces. We sat there, just eating in silence and watching the people walk by. A few men went down the road with a pile of boards on their shoulders. Children chased each other down the hill, laughing and screaming. I smiled, amused by their game. A couple young men came along, arguing loudly about who was the better fighter. A young boy walked into the mead hall with one of his friends, talking about what kind of dragons they wanted to have when they were old enough. A moment later, four beautiful maidens traveled uphill with linens in their arms, giggling amongst themselves. I found myself looking at them with envy. They wore dresses of the finest silks and cottons, all brightly colored with vivid reds, blues, yellows, and greens while beautiful jewels and beads adorned their necks. It was obvious they were heading out to the woods, to wash clothes in the river. Even these kinds of women had jobs here.

Falkor's voice rumbled sympathetically. I turned around to see him looking at me. In his eyes, I saw that he understood what I was thinking. Then he reached his head down and nibbled at my braid. I smiled and laughed, then pulled my braid from his teeth. "Come now..." I said. "You know I couldn't live without you." My hand moved up to pat him on the nose. I finished the last of my salmon quickly and stood up. Falkor had already downed his lamb chops, no doubt hungry from not eating yesterday. I took the plates and set them on a table inside, and returned.

Resting an arm on his shoulder, I looked around at my surroundings. I felt lost and useless. This place was so different than my own. My village didn't have so many people and they never stayed in one place like this. Not to mention these people didn't need protection. Not only were they Vikings but they also had dragons. I doubted they even had any enemies.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny lizard about the size of a cat crawling up to us. It surprised me since it walked around from behind Falkor. The tiny thing seemed to be sizing him up. My dragon leaned his head down to get a better look and rumbled curiously.

"Looks like a pest, if you ask me," I said as I crouched down. The lizard breathed quite fast and darted its head back and forth between us.

That's when Falkor moved his hand out and startled the creature when he picked it up by its tail and brought it up to his nose. The lizard squirmed about as Falkor opened his jaws to eat it, thinking it a mere pest as I had said. It stopped squirming and turned to face the dragon's rows of sharp teeth and right as Falkor was about to eat the thing in one bite, the little lizard opened its jaws wide and shot a tiny fireball right down the dragon's throat.

I leapt back in surprise and Falkor dropped the little thing. He held his jaws wide and groaned with pain, smoke seeping from his throat. He wheezed and coughed in a sickly way and I reached out to see the creature. "Not an ordinary lizard, now, are you?" I said as I reached around and pulled on its very small wings.

"Hey! Leave my dragon alone!" A boy called and scooped the dragon up in his arms. "Haven't you seen a Terrible Terror before?"

"N-no. I-"

"Do you live in a cave?" The boy said with disbelief and stormed away.

Falkor wheezed again and turned to me, slowly closing his mouth. His head was tilted in a questioning way.

"L-let's just... Get out of here..." I pushed Falkor into motion and walked downhill, deciding to go see Old Wrinkly.

**(page break)**

The sun had begun to creep down towards the horizon. Fire caught the clouds and the sky bled. It was an amazing sight, and truly the first time I'd really seen it. Although I enjoyed the sight of fireflies dancing in the air, this was something entirely different. A cold, nightly wind bit at my fingers as I made my way down a wooden walkway to the docks. In the dimming light, I saw dozens of ships tethered down by little ropes. On the front of each ship was a frightening character, some being wolves, bears, birds, and dragons. As I reached the bottom, I noticed that there wasn't a soul in sight. I wondered if I had come too early.

"Hey! Kelda!" I heard a distant voice call to me somewhere above. Turning about, I saw a figure standing on a walkway high above me. I could barely make out Hiccup's brown hair and fur vest. "I didn't actually think you'd go all the way down there!"

"Why not? You said the docks!" I called back up.

"Wait, I'll come get you!" Hiccup turned to leave, but I stopped him.

"Save your strength!" I said and calculated the distance between the dock and the pillars holding up the walkway. There were numerous boards holding the pillars together and it was easily observed someone could climb up that way. I preferred it to following a complicated route through the village. Taking a running jump, I sailed over the water and grabbed onto one of the horizontal boards. I pulled myself up to stand on it and then leapt for another, pulling myself up again. I did this until I reached the top, some 20 feet above my head. It was able to move quickly up the wooden beams; It helped that I'd done this more times than I could count with trees. When I reached the top, I jumped backwards and dangled from the walkway for a moment before I pulled myself up. I stood and peered back down at the structure with a quick nod.

"You know, it would've been easier if I had just went down and gotten you," Hiccup pointed out.

"The quickest way is not always the easiest," I said and placed my hands on my hips. "So, where to now?"

"Right..." Hiccup said and began walking up a winding ramp. "This way." It wasn't a very steep incline and it took only a minute to reach the top. As we wound around the base of a wooden tower, we came up behind a small group of people sitting around a fire. Three pillars stood around the circular area and held up a small tarp. Five faces turned to look at us, but locked on me. Astrid and Snotlout were here from earlier, not to mention the twins I had encountered the day before. But there was a large man sitting beside Snotlout that I'd not seen before. "Hey guys," Hiccup said and walked around to Astrid.

"You already know Astrid. This is Fishlegs, -" He waved a hand toward the beefy-looking man - "Snoutlout, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut." He waved a hand towards the two in front of me. "Everyone, meet Kelda."

Astrid, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs each muttered their "hellos", but Snotlout and Tuffnut stood up to personally greet me. Tuffnut, being closer, spoke first. "Hey, nice to meet ya. I'm Tuffnut, toughest guy in Berk."

Someone snorted in an attempt to hold back laughter. Tuffnut turned toward his sister and said, "What's so funny?!"

"Dude," Ruffnut said. "That's the girl that punched you in the face!" Then she lost control and broke into laughter.

"That's not funny! Stop laughing!" He pushed his sister to make her stop.

"Tuffnut was beat up by a girl!" She sang and shoved him back.

That's when Snotlout squeezed past the two and leaned on one of the pillars. "Allow me to introduce myself again," He flirted and did a small bow.

"You guys! Break it up!" Hiccup said and pulled the twins apart. "Snotlout, cut that out."

Snotlout gave an annoyed look, but sat down anyways. The twins calmed down long enough to sit down again, although you could tell they were still tense. I eased around to sit on an empty log opposite Snotlout and Fishlegs.

Hiccup sighed and said, "So, is everyone ready to eat?"

"Yes!" Everyone said, almost in unison.

"We've been waiting forever!" Tuffnut complained.

"Yeah, really..." Ruffnut said.

Hiccup chuckled and said, "Okay, okay. We've got venison and bear meat tonight." He dropped a basket onto the ground that I failed to notice earlier and pulled out plates for everyone. Each person shouted out their choice and Hiccup yielded the food to them. When everything was settled and we all had our meals, everything became hushed for a while as we ate. I sliced my share of venison up with my knife and took a few bites before people began talking again.

"So, tell me Tuffnut. How exactly were you beat up by a girl?" Snotlout said.

Tuffnut growled. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Ruffnut giggled and shared with everyone, "Actually, he was carrying some planks down to repair one of the houses and smacked Kelda in the back of the head. That's when she turned around and punched him right in the face. Tuff was actually knocked back by the force of her fist!" She laughed as she recalled the event.

"Oh yeah, you just _have_ to tell everyone, don't ya?" Tuffnut said and shoved a slice of venison in his mouth.

"Yeah I do! It was hilarious!"

Snotlout laughed along with Astrid, Hiccup, and Fishlegs.

"It's not funny!"

"I told you to be careful," Ruff said.

"So, Astrid, how was dragon training today?" Fishlegs said.

Astrid took a moment to swallow her food and said, "Terrible! I swear, these kids think this is all some kind of joke!" She took a moment to point her fork at the man. "If you have a kid, please, for Odin's sake, raise them right!"

"What happened?" Tuffnut said.

"You all know they got their dragons yesterday, right?" Astrid said. Everyone nodded except me. "Well, I decided to give them dragon combat training and they just completely ignored me and flew off. One of those little trolls fell into the sea! He's lucky I'm nice enough to save him. I was so furous by the time it was over I wouldn't put Thor to shame!"

"That bad, huh?" Snotlout said.

"Oh yes. Honestly, the kids need a good lesson. That one figured out it was worth listening to me when he nearly drowned, but the rest of them oughta be tied to a tree and bathed in honey for the bears." She sighed and, ironically, took another bite of her bear meat.

They group talked on length for what seemed like ages, and I was just as absorbed into the conversation as the rest of them. They laughed together and vented together, and while I recalled Snotlout told me he hated Hiccup, he probably still loved him in a cousinly way. Occasionally they would ask me a question, and I would respond as simply as possible. One part of the conversation really caught my attention, however.

"Turns out some of the hunters said another Night Fury had been here," Fishlegs said. I remembered that Night Furies and Black Devils were the same and listened intently. "They were hoping to find it, but didn't see one anywhere."

"How did they know that?" I said automatically.

"It left a fresh print in the sand on the beach across the island. And we already know Toothless wasn't out there. Nobody ever goes out there."

"Is it dangerous out there?"

"Naw, there's just never any reason to go there." Fishlegs said and that was the end of the conversation. My mind wandered after that, and I came to the conclusion that the Black Devil must have returned home with its rider. Probably to resupply. When the conversations began to die off, the group decided to go home and get some sleep. They gave their plates to Hiccup and Astrid and walked into the shadows of the ramp, disappearing into the night.

Hiccup, Astrid, and I followed shortly after and wound our way down. When we got back to the center of the village, where the massive bonfire burned bright, Hiccup turned to me and said, "So, I guess we'll see ya tomorrow. Good night, Kelda." Turning away, they, too, disappeared into the night and I was alone once more. I picked my way out of the village and returned to my campsite where Falkor was already asleep, a fire warming his scales. I laid out my blanket and watched Falkor's chest rise and fall for a short time before I drifted asleep, as well. That night, I dreamed of being home again.


	4. Chapter 4: Day 3

**AN: Meh, another filler sort of chapter. Sets up a little somethin'-somethin' though. Hahaha Sorry this was submitted unusually late. Had to go to three birthday parties this weekend and had another busy school week. For coming to the end of the year, we are rediculously busy. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this. If there's any errors, please notify me. Trust me, I won't mind and am completely open to suggestions or critiques. And since I forgot to do this for the other chapters...**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN "HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON" THE MOVIE OR THE BOOK SERIES.**

The next day was dreary. Clouds covered the sky, a sign of rain that was soon to come. They weren't low enough for that to happen today, but perhaps tomorrow instead. It wasn't a fun thing to be in. Sure, the sound was pleasant, but when it comes to living outside and so far north, you start to hope that it never rains. When I pushed myself up off the ground, I saw more dew clinging to the grass around me. Falkor was already awake at this time, stretching his legs. With a quick shake of his body, the droplets flung from his scales and gently misted me.

I blinked my eyes when it hit my face and looked at him grumpily. "Gee, thanks."

Short, snorting sounds sounded from his maw as he did his dragonic laugh.

I gave him an unamused look, but could not hold it for long. I ended up chuckling along with him. Soon, we were back within the outer limits of the village. However, we had plans for today. As we walked, our eyes were sharp, looking for the brown hair of the one man who had brought us here. It was a little frustrating because we had a hard time finding him. Eventually, Falkor grunted and trotted off towards Hiccup. Looking around my dragon, I saw Astrid standing beside him.

"Hiccup! I was hoping you'd come with me out into the forest today," I said as I got closer.

"Oh..." Hiccup glanced back to his wife. "Actually, I'm going to help Astrid with her dragon training class. Odin knows she needs it."

I stopped and was quickly disappointed. "Oh, I see. Well, I hope you manage to get somewhere with those kids!"

"Thor Almighty! I sure hope we do!" Astrid cried from behind Hiccup and began walking away.

"I'll see ya around then!" Hiccup waved and followed his wife.

I looked up at Falkor and sighed. "Well, that wasn't what I was hoping for..."

The dragon's mouth twitched and stretched, somewhat imitating my own unamused face. I smiled and patted him on the nose. "Now what?" I asked.

Falkor smacked his jaws and I was quick to understand. We walked around the maze of buildings until we got back to the central bonfire and I eased my way into the mead hall. As I walked around the area to get food for the two of us, I saw Snotlout getting something to eat as well. My mind was first focused on getting food, however, so I didn't really take notice, but once I had our meals, I realized something. Turning to Snotlout, I said, "Hey!"

He was a bit surprised by my presence, but turned to me and leaned on the table in an attempt to be cool. "Hey..."

"I was hoping you'd come out with me in the forest today. I want to have a look around," I said, hopeful he would agree.

"Yeah... Sorry, but I have to help my dad out today..." He stood up straight. "But, I'd be happy to go out with you tomorrow!"

My arms drooped, my body growing heavy with the disappointment of today. Sure, it wasn't all right to ask them at the last minute, but it was too late to ask anyone last night. "No, that's okay." I turned and walked away. It seemed I would have to go out there alone if I wanted to go at all. I thought over my chances of survival if that man _was_ still out there with his dragon. Waiting for us to wander off alone, vulnerable. Falkor still wasn't completely using his arm yet, and no doubt he couldn't fly. If anything, it would be a difficult fight, possibly resulting in our deaths due to our disadvantages.

"Geez, you eat a lot!" A voice said as I walked by a table.

I stopped and looked to see Tuffnut sitting at the table by himself, his own breakfast in front of him. I glanced at my two plates and laughed. "Oh, this isn't all for me. Falkor needs to eat, too," I said and smiled meekly.

"Oh, I see." Tuffnut went back to eating.

"Why are you eating alone? Surely there's _someone_ to eat with."

"Well, I can't eat with my sister _all_ the time. We may be twins, but we've grown to be apart more," he said. "And I haven't seen anyone else around."

"Why don't you eat with us?" I offered. He looked up and seemed surprised.

"A-All right..." Tuffnut said and stood up. We walked out and I sat by the bonfire, the warmth of the flames fought back the chill of the wind. The man hesitated before sitting in the grass beside me.

It was quiet, both of us unsure of what to say. Falkor grumbled at this, his eyes boring into us as he lay by the fire. I turned to him and decided to ask him then, "Would you come with me out into the woods today?"

He looked at me for a moment before saying, "Why?"

"Well... I'd rather not go alone. At least not today..." I looked away.

"Ok."

I turned back to him to see him simply stuffing the last of his food in his mouth. My face resembled something like being shocked, no doubt by the blunt simplicity of his answer, but I couldn't help but smile at him. I shook my head and continued eating, finishing the last of my own meal.

**(page break)**

By the time we got out to the woods, the sun was just beginning to climb to its highest point in the sky. We climbed uphill, through thick woodland that made me feel at home. Falkor walked on my right as usual. My usually empty side was occupied by Tuffnut. There was yet another silence between us. A very awkward silence. It wasn't so bad, since it allowed me to listen to the sounds of the forest, but we were both uncomfortable with each other's presence. Upon listening, I noticed Falkor's feet made no sounds as did mine, however Tuffnut acted as Hiccup did just a few days ago. The man had no regard for keeping quiet and this caused the birds to fall silent around us.

"Don't drag your feet," I said without turning to him.

He stopped for a moment, before walking on, slower this time. It was definitely quieter, but Tuffnut didn't know how to walk properly. I sighed, but asked no more of him. Instead, I slowed down so he could keep up.

"So, where are you from?" Tuffnut asked.

"Me? I come from a land to the... Southeast," I said, taking a moment to think over the direction.

"Oh, I see. What's it like there?"

"Mostly woodland, like this."

"Do you fish a lot, too?"

"No, we don't visit the oceans often, only during warmer periods," I said. The conversation broke off here as a deer ran off through the brush somewhere to our left. It surprised us both, and I reached behind me to grab my bow, but only caught air. It was so tempting to shoot down the deer for food, but I still had yet to make a new one.

As we walked on, the ground leveled out for a while and then sloped downwards. It was a gentle slope, but gradually grew steeper as we went on. "So, you're going to that beach, huh?" Tuffnut said, finally working it out in his mind.

"This _is_ the way right? Because all I know is that... Uh... Fish- Fishlegs said it was on the other side of the island," I said, struggling to remember the man's name. By now, we were going down the hill much more slowly, the way growing more tricky to maneuver.

"Yeah, it's down this way," he said. "Why is it so important to you, though?"

"Because I need to know-" I slid down the hill a short ways, the leaves under my feet slipping against each other. I wrapped by arms around a treetrunk to stop myself. "Whoa..."

"You okay?" Tuffnut called down, leaping down the hillside to check on me. Falkor eased his way down, afraid he might slip as well.

I was stunned by his concern, but found myself saying, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." It sounded genuine, sincere, like we had known each other for ages. I didn't know why I did it, either.

Our previous words were forgotten as we climbed lower. The land leveled out again and at the other end of this flat area was a very steep hill. I leaned out over it and could smell sea salt in the air. "So, why are you coming out here?" Tuffnut said again.

I turned back to him. "I need to know if that dragon is truly gone. I know when it's playing a trick or not."

"You don't like this other Night Fury, do you?" Tuffnut said. "Who are you really?" He stepped forward and leaned towards me.

I felt uncomfortable and leaned back, but forgot how I was positioned and found myself falling. My face lit up with the fear of what I'd just done and I reached out for the closest thing to stabalize myself. That being Tuffnut. But he offered no help. I tumbled backwards down the hill. Falkor's deafening roar ripped through the silence of the forest and echoed off the trees. I rolled blindly down the hill. Tuffnut came up behind me, although he was running down it. I turned to roll on my side, and managed to pull myself up so that I was running down the hill, too. Although with how steep it was, I flew through the trees, unable to stop at the speed I was going.

Tuffnut started cursing and yelling, "No, no, no, no, no!" Then he cried out and smacked into a bush. He fell behind and I continued on. In a matter of seconds, I reached the bottom of the hill, tripped over my own feet, flipped over myself, and landed face-first into sand. I somehow managed to knock the wind out of me and turned over onto my back, taking raspy breaths. I coughed and brushed off my sandy face. Falkor arrived some ways down the beach to my right, flipping over himself as he knocked over a tree in his path. He roared and growled and dragged himself over to me.

However, before he could even get up, Tuffnut stumbled down the hill from where I came from, pulling his shirt over his head. He was muttering angrily to himself, saying, "Stupid thorn-bushes. Why do they have to be so sharp!" When he finally pulled his shirt off, he, too, tripped over his feet and landed right on top of me.

Once again, the air was knocked from me as he tried to stop himself by throwing his arms out and into my stomach. I gasped and would have curled up had his weight not been on me. We laid there for a minute, just trying to relax. When I finally took the time to look down at him, his face was lying on my chest and he groaned with pain. Tuffnut opened his eyes and looked around. Finally realizing the situation, he picked himself and stepping back. "S-sorry! I didn't realize..." He turned away, obviously embarrassed.

I turned my head to lay it against the sand, shaking it some in reply. "No... It's fine..." I breathed out. When I caught my breath again, I slowly stood up, using Falkor as a crutch. I looked up at Tuffnut and immediately took noticed of his bare torso. It was well-defined with plenty of muscles and scars here and there. I smiled and said, "For such a thin man, you've got quite the muscles."

He turned to me and smiled. "I told you I was the toughest guy in Berk."

I chuckled. "Yeah, right. Is that why you screamed like a girl when you fell into that thorn bush?"

Tuffnut's smile disappeared and he turned away. "It's not like you wouldn't, either..." He muttered, thinking I couldn't hear him, and kicked the sand up.

Falkor sniffed the air and looked around. When the dragon trotted off, he caught my attention. I followed him and found Falkor leaning over a trail of footprints. They were windblown and a bit difficult to make out now, but I saw that they were the prints of the Black Devil. Right beside them were also footprints in the shape of a person's boot. No doubt belonging to the rider. My dragon grumbled something to me, but I was too busy looking up at the sky. The sun had taken to the westerd side of the sky now. However, the shore we were on faced east. The prints faced directly out to sea and cut off abruptly in the area just out of reach of the tide. There was no awkwardness to the position of the prints and they flowed naturally, so the dragon was definitely walking out.

I'd read that Black Devil's prints so much I could tell when they were simply walking backwards or actually walking. And from the looks of it, they seemed to have actually left. I sighed was able to relax. Sure, there was a chance the man had simply flewn off some ways and turned back around, but knowing the way he was, the rider was long gone.

Now there was nothing left to do. I stood there, looking out at the sea for some time before Tuffnut spoke up again. "You're so serious," He noted. "Why don't you lighten up?"

I was about to turn my head, but my eyes were fixated on the crashing waves. "Well..." I would've explained, but I didn't want to bring anyone into my fight. "Maybe living out in the woods just teaches you to be serious all the time. You can't goof around as much," I said. It wasn't far from the truth. Sure, no wild animals would dare come close when Falkor was around, but we were still careful in case the rider were around.

"Well, you're not back home, are you? So you can afford to have a little fun, right?" Tuffnut said. His voice was closer this time however.

"I suppose. I mean, it couldn't hurt," I said thoughtfully. Maybe being here might be a good thing. There weren't any duties for me here, and Falkor and I couldn't return home to watch over our people. It was like we were on a forced vacation.

The hissing of the waves drowned out all my thoughts and I started to relax, salty mists flying up rhythmically. I became so entranced by the sounds and sights of the seashore that I didn't hear Tuffnut come up behind me. I didn't even realize he was there until he said softly, "Well, I think you deserve to have some fun!" Then I was pushed forward into the water. I yelped and closed my eyes as I fell into the cool waves. Today, it wasn't as cold as it usually was. It was very unusual, but it felt kinda nice.

I stood up in the water and stared the man down. Then I waded forward, clenching my fists and growled as I grabbed his arm and swung him around, flinging him into the water as well.

Falkor did his dragonic laugh behind me and I turned to smile at him. That's when Tuffnut tackled me to the ground and dragged me back out in the water. He let go when a wave smacked into him and I pulled myself above the water. When I stood up, I turned to look at him and laughed. We had a total disregard for the fact that our clothes were soaked and it simply didn't matter this time. I felt free, like it was when I was just a little girl.

Falkor leapt into the water, too, drenching us with water. I splashed him back, only to find Tuffnut splashing me. I gasped and leapt for him, pulling him underwater. When I came back up, Falkor was crouched in the water and once Tuffnut pulled himself up, he launched towards us. I screamed as the dragon landed on top of us and dragged us underwater again.

I swam around and pulled myself up on Falkor's shoulders, his wet hide making it a bit difficult. But standing on his back, I leapt over his wing and dived into the water. The dragon grumbled at this and splashed me again when I came up. I laughed and looked around for Tuffnut, but didn't see him. Right as I was looking around Falkor, and arm reached up and pulled me under a wave. When I turned Tuffnut was grinning the best he could with his mouth closed.

Soon, the hype of playing in the waves died down and we waded back to shore. The waves felt stronger now, but that was only because we'd tired outselves out. I was completely soaked, my clothes clinging to my body. Once back on the dry sand, I pulled off my coat and sat down to yank off my boots. It probably would have been a good idea to pull them off earlier, but it was too late now. The two of us built up a small pyre and Falkor lit it some time later, when his head had finally dried off. We sat there for a while, just smiling, drying off our clothes.

"You know, I would have never done that," I said after some time.

"Why not?" Tuffnut asked.

"It's like you said... I'm always so serious. I would've never found that to be a good idea if I were back home..." I leaned back on my arms and stretched my legs out towards the flames. My head drooped on its side and I sighed contentedly.

"How come?"

"It's dangerous back there. Always something or someone out to get you. Always afraid of what you'll see next..." I said freely, allowing my filtered thoughts be spoken.

"Sounds like a rough life. You really need a break, then." He stood up and pulled his shirt back on. "Finally got the thorns out of it," he said, tugging on the shoulder. After a moment of standing here, Tuffnut sighed and held out a hand to help me up.

"Yeah... It's probably about time we got back," I said as I took it. Brushing off my feet the best I could, I pulled on my still-wet boots and tied them back in place around my pants. I pulled on my coat, thankfully dry after sitting by the fire.

Falkor spread the flaming logs and sticks apart and laid down on them to put them out, then brushed the ashes off his scales. It was only when the fire was out that we noticed how dark it had gotten. While not dark enough to distort our vision too much, it was still shocking how we'd stayed out here so long. We climbed back up the steep hill, with much difficulty, Tuffnut somehow managing to walk back into the thornbush again. I laughed, but apologized after he shot me an annoyed look. It took quite some time before we finally got back uphill, and from there on it was a generally quick walk back to the village. The forest grew darker and quieter as we went on, the birds completely ceasing their songs for the day, the crickets taking up the beat and lending their tunes. It was peaceful, and for once, I didn't mind that Tuffnut was dragging his feet. I felt relaxed for once in my life.

The day had gone on without any tragedy occurring. This confirmed the fact that the rider wasn't here anymore. It was a relieving fact. A fact that brought a truly amazing sense of peace over me. Sure, there was still the matter of protecting my village, but that just seemed like such a little problem now.

Before I realized it, we were walking through the field behind the village of Berk. I saw the area where Falkor and I slept and watched as Falkor moved around to lie down. I followed Tuffnut some ways until we got past the first house.

I grabbed the man's shoulder, and waited until he turned to look at me. "I'm glad that you went out there with me," I paused. "Thank you."

He smiled and said, "No problem." I let go and watched him walk away. Pulling my braid over my shoulder, I ran my hands along its length, turned around, and walked back to where Falkor ignited the fire.


	5. Chapter 5: Day 4

**AN: Wow, I actually had a bit of a writers block with this one. It was just how I should end this chapter, though. But, thankfully, the ever-so-wonderful axelxkairi helped me out with an ingenius idea. So, I thank her so much for that and give her credit for it! And you guys, no need to worry any more! The next chapter is worth these generally uneventful ones you've had to endure! **

I was right. In the middle of the night, I was awoken by a cold rain pelting my body. Falkor didn't notice it at first, but I gathered up my blanket and crawled over to him, tugging on his wing. He noticed _that_. The dragon lifted his head, confused at first, but then saw my clothes slowly soaking more and more. He lifted his wing up and extended it, creating an umbrella to shield me from the dreadful weather. We slept on like that, but I found myself watching as the fire fought against the rain, only to sputter out. Soon, the gentle pattering of the rain lulled me back to sleep.

In the morning, it was still raining, although my clothes had dried out a bit. It was annoying that it had to rain today, but it wouldn't stop me. I folded up my blanket and set it by the campfire, not caring whether or not it would be soaked or not, picked up my quiver and the remnants of my bow, and turned to Falkor. I took a deep breath and said, "Today, we go out into the forest. Just you and me."

The dragon looked out at the trees apprehensively, but nodded his head. It was funny how we could understand each other so well, despite the language barrier between us. But I smiled at him and patted him on the nose. "All right, let's go."

And into the woods we went. Fear wouldn't hold us back today. No. Today we wouldn't eat or rest until we searched every inch of this forest. It was unlikely that we'd even cover a third of the area, considering how long it took to walk from one side of the island to the other, but that didn't matter.

From beneath Falkor's wing, I climbed the muddy slope and into the thickest part of the trees. The birds sang softly today, most of them focused on hunting the worms that crawled out of the drowning earth. I pulled my braid over my shoulder and put the hood of my coat up over my head, to shield my head from the cold breeze.

The footprints of yesterday would be erased, to leave room for the prints of tomorrow. And I walked on, a keen eye, ear, and nose searching for anything and everything that I would see.

**(page break)**

I decided to head back to Berk earlier than I thought I would. The rain was beating against the world harder than ever, and the roar of a coming storm sounded in the distance. This had turned out worse than I previously thought and I knew it wouldn't be safe for me to continue wandering this strange territory. I did, however, cover a good amount of ground. I started at the northern cliffs and worked my way inland and westward. It was helpful that I was quick to memorize places, even more helpful that I marked a few important places with arrows, a ribbon attached to their shafts.

"Come now, you silly brutes!" A thunderous voice echoed from the village as I reached it. A group of people were herding some dragons off to another part of the village. No doubt to shelter them from the storm.

A cruel wind picked up and blew a wave of rain into my face. I turned away for a minute and waited until it died down again before I ran for the mead hall. It wasn't a good thing that I started running because I immediately slipped in the mud and fell forward. Although I was quick to pick myself up again. Falkor trotted along behind me, doing his best to move quickly on his sore leg. I ran ahead and waited before I went inside the hall. When Falkor caught up, I ran my hand along his head. "I'm gonna stay inside until the storm is over. Go ahead and find a nice dry place if you want to."

The dragon nodded slightly under my hand and I turned and slipped inside. I wasn't the only person with this idea, though. Either that or these people were too hungry to pay the storm any mind. I heard my stomach growl when the smell of cooking meat reached me, however, and I found myself drifting around for a meal of my own.

"Hey! Kelda, right?" A voice echoed to me. The feminine qualities caught me off guard.

I turned to find the source, still hoping to get a meal, but found Ruffnut walking up behind me. "Yeah. You're Ruffnut."

"Good to know you still remember my name," she chuckled and waved a hand. "Come over here!"

I was a bit confused by this offer, as she gave no explanation, but followed her anyways. My stomach growled again, but I held back the desire to shove the first thing I saw down my throat. The feeling worsened when we reached our destination. Sitting at one end of a table were Snotlout, Fishlegs, Astrid, Hiccup, and Tuffnut. Each of them eating roasted meat, the smell of which carried to my nose.

Snotlout was the first to see me, "Hey, babe!"

I shot him a confused look and jerked my head back. Choosing to ignore him, I looked at the others and simply said, "Hello."

Hiccup had turned to his cousin with a certain look that said "really?", but he said nothing; instead, he went back to his meal. Snotlout shrugged in reply.

Fishlegs was the first to reply. "Hi, Kelda."

"Hey," Astrid said with a nod, not taking her eyes off her food.

"Oh, hey, Kelda!" Tuffnut turned to look at me with a smile.

"Go on, have a seat. I still gotta get something to eat. Want me to get some food for you?" Ruffnut said.

I was a bit surprised, but said, "Yeah, sure. Thanks."

She left and that's when Astrid looked up at me and said, "What have you been doing around here?"

This was the first time she ever really spoke to me of her own accord and I didn't even understand the question. "What?"

"Well, everytime I try and find you to talk to you, I can't!"

To be honest, I thought she didn't like me. "I don't do very much. Just keep to myself, really..." I said.

She nodded and went back to her meal. I was left feeling confused. "Great conversation, Astrid," Hiccup said sarcastically.

The woman turned to look at him in disbelief, but Hiccup simply smiled good-naturedly. She smiled, chuckled, and gave him a playful push.

"So... Did you have any better luck with dragon training?" I asked.

Astrid looked up at me, swallowed, and began nodding. "Actually yes. Seems like they just needed a reminder of what can happen when you deal with dragons." She jerked her head towards Hiccup, who was too busy eating to notice the movement. "But now that they seem to be a bit more serious, we're gonna start combat training soon..." Her voice drifted off and she picked at her food a little in thought. "That's kinda what I wanted to ask you. You're not from around here and... I was wondering if you knew how to fight."

_So that's what she was getting at._ "Yeah, I know how to fight. You want me to help you out?"

"Sort of. I wanna spar with you first. See how you fight. You up for it?"

I smirked, "Yeah, I'm up for it."

Before Astrid could think of a time, Ruffnut came back and set down a plate in front of me. "Thank you," I said.

"Don't thank me," she said with a smile, taking a seat between Tuffnut and me. "So, Hiccup. Did you find something interesting out in the forest today?"

"Out in the forest? What are you talking about?" Hiccup said, looking up at her.

Ruffnut was confused by his remark. "Well, I saw you flying over the forest today. I figured you saw something and wanted to check it out. So I was just wondering, what did you see?"

Hiccup sat up straight and said, "Um, I didn't see anything because I wasn't out flying today. I was helping out Astrid again."

"So, it was another Night Fury?" She became excited at the idea.

However, I was fearful.

"Kelda, you look like you've seen a ghost. Something wrong?" Fishlegs asked from down the table.

I turned to look at him, but I said to Ruffnut, "Did you see them land, by any chance?"

"Yeah, actually. They landed somewhere on the east side of the island." Everyone jumped when the sound of lightning pierced the air. We all turned to see a villager standing in the doorway, stunned by a lightning strike that seemed to have struck just outside.

The group laughed about it, but I couldn't shake the feeling of terror that struck me.

Fishlegs noticed this. "What's the matter?"

I looked back up at him again and smiled. "Sorry, it's nothing." Taking a bite of my meal, I saw he was still watching me, concerned. "Fishlegs, it's fine. Really!" I chuckled, surprising myself with how good an actress I was.

He was reassured when I began to laugh, and nodded. "All right. So what're we gonna do about this Night Fury?" he said to everyone else.

"Well, we obviously need to get over there as soon as possible. If it's wild, it's likely to not stay here for long," Hiccup was the first to speak.

Snotlout scoffed, "Yeah, I remember what Toothless did before you caught him. No doubt the others are the same."

"The earliest we can go is tomorrow. There's no way we're going to check this dragon out tonight," Astrid said.

"I'm definitely going out there," Hiccup said. "Who else is coming?"

"Me!" Astrid said.

"I'm totally coming," Ruffnut and Tuffnut said in unison.

"You can go without me," Fishlegs said. "I'm pretty busy tomorrow."

"Well, I'm going!" Snotlout said.

"Are you sure you can't come, Fishlegs?" Hiccup asked.

The man shook his head, "Sorry you guys."

"Forget about work!" Astrid said. "When will something like this happen again?"

Something registered in the man. "Wait, you have dragon training tomorrow! What're you gonna tell those kids?"

"They can handle a day off." She waved a hand.

"Well, okay! Fine! I'll come then!" Fishlegs said with a smile.

"So the whole gang's going!" Tuffnut said.

"Oh, Kelda, how about you come with us?" Hiccup said.

I looked up, only just noticing that I was moving my food around my plate with my fork mindlessly. "Uh... I don't know..." I began shaking my head. "You guys don't seem to be considering the chance that this dragon also has a rider."

The man thought about this for a moment, then said, "Well, then we can talk to him, get to know him. Maybe even become allies."

"What if they're hostile?"

Astrid waved a fork around. "If they're hostile, they're facing uneven odds. Six to one, not counting dragons."

"Does the fact that he has a Black Devil not scare you in the least?"

"What do you mean 'he'?" Fishlegs said. I cursed him for being so attentive to me.

"What's a Black Devil?" Tuffnut said.

Anyone who had been eating looked up at me. "A Black Devil is a- a-" I couldn't think of the name now.

"-Night Fury," Hiccup said for me.

"Thank you," I said.

"What do you mean 'he'?" Fishlegs said again.

I just started at him. I didn't know what to say. After a short moment, I said, "W-well, I'm just saying 'what if?'"

Fishlegs didn't seem to believe me, but went back to eating, but I was thankful that everyone else simply put it off. Hiccup just shook his head and said, "Ok, so are you coming or not?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I'll come."

I would've liked to hope that this wasn't who I thought it was. No, who I knew it was. I would've liked to believe that yet _another_ Black Devil could exist so close. It was remarkable enough that two existed within flying distance, but three was just impossible. I stopped listening to them when they were planning things out. Only once did I speak after that, to agree to ride on Snotlout's dragon, Fireworm. I didn't think about disagreeing, but rather became passive to it all. I ate the last of my food and wandered off, the others not noticing my absence. I walked outside for a bit, finding Falkor sitting in the rain. The storm wasn't actually over, but I didn't care. From his hand, I took a large piece of wood and patted him on the nose again.

When I went back inside, I noticed the emptiness of all the others tables. Picking one out away from Hiccup and his friends, I set to work, trimming away the wood in my hands with my knife. I sat there for ages with the tree branch, long after everyone went to bed, and hardly noticed anything when I finally drifted off.


	6. Chapter 6: Day 5

**AN: All right everyone. Are you guys excited for this? Because I hope you all really enjoy this chapter. It's so weird as an author to have so many people interested in reading this story. I mean this is the first thing I've actually successfully published and it seems I have a lot of faithful readers. I'm so happy I might cry! *sniff* You guys are so great! This is an intense chapter. And not to be like "my character's completely original because she's _ (you'll figure this part out after you read this chapter, unless you still don't get it)" I've come to realize plenty of other people have the same idea... Let me at least give you this. I've thought about this scene for quite some time now. Like, the idea for the main part of this chapter had been in my head for a while and I wrote out the original thing weeks ago. Obviously, I've changed plenty of things so that it actually _works_ with my story, but I was one of the first with this idea! ANYWAYS, enough of my ranting. You guys wanna get to the story. But really, I hope you enjoy it and please give me feedback. What's good, what's bad, what needs some work. ANYTHING! Honestly. I can handle it.**

I talked to Old Wrinkly this morning. He rebandaged my arm, the gash quite healed now. Falkor's arm and belly was only sore now, scars in place of his own wounds. The wing membrane still needed healing, although the hole was much smaller now, but the doctor had asked me to gather some herbs while I was out. The bow I'd been working on last night had gone unfinished and I set it beside my campfire along with the old one and my quiver. I couldn't finish it because everyone had gathered too soon. I told Falkor to stay behind, that I'd be all right. The rider would not be stupid enough to attack us as a group. But, then again, he may be clever enough to get away with it. Dozens of scenarios played through my head as I held on to Snotlout's waist. He explained earlier what kind of dragon Fireworm was.

'He's a Monstruous Nightmare. Ever heard of one before?' He had said.

I'd told him, 'No,' and that was the end of it. I couldn't talk that day. All I could do was think of all the terrible things that might unfold.

It took only a few minutes to reach the beach, and when we landed, there was nothing to be seen. "You did say he landed over here, right?" Hiccup said to Ruffnut.

"Yeah," she replied. Everyone looked around, looking for footprints that might lead elsewhere.

"Well, there's nothing _here_!" Astrid said and kicked up sand.

This wasn't possible. I crept out into the forest, leaving the others behind, and climbed up the hill. I paused on the hillside for a moment, holding on to a tree and listened.

Nothing.

Small voices could be heard from the beach, but that wasn't what I was looking for. I continued up, and stopped again to pick a small herb nestled in the ground. Something for Old Wrinkly to use.

"KELDA!" A shrill voice called up the hill.

My muscles tensed, and while I wanted to yell back to them, I knew I couldn't. It would merely give away my position. I climbed up the hill more, faster now, in an attempt to get away from the group behind me. If they followed me, it would simply ruin everything. I needed silence.

I reached the top faster than I realized and only heard a faint echo of a voice calling my name. I listened for something else. Perhaps someone moving through the forest.

Again, nothing.

I trusted Ruffnut's judgement that someone had landed over here, but there was nothing. Only quiet birdsong. I continued through the trees and was startled when a few does took off running. If the deer weren't threatened until I came along, then there was no doubt nobody was here but me.

I found myself relaxing now. Just listening to the silence. Just me and the woods. It was peaceful. I gathered herbs as I walked, still remaining quiet. It took quite a bit of time as I closely examined every little plant I came across. At times, I would pause to listen to the forest again, only to hear the silence. Nobody moved around me and the deer kept their distance now. I no longer cared if Hiccup and his friends were out looking for me. If anything, they probably would have flown back to the village, disappointed by their lack of findings.

A cold breeze blew across the island and I found my fingers growing a bit numb. They felt funny as I picked herbs. Finding one of my last few, I took it gently in my fingers and stroked the leaves before reaching down and snapping the plant off at the base. A quick whiff verified the herb and I tucked it into my boot. Feeling adventurous, I climbed up a boulder and leapt off the other side onto the leafy forest floor. Looking down the hill here and I saw Berk through the trees. I didn't realize I was so close to the village now. I sighed contently and started thinking.

Behind me, something brushed the ground. It was a long sweeping sound, too. Then there was a sudden _THUMP_.

I jumped and wheeled around to see Toothless, having crawled down the rock I just did. "Oh..." I sighed and smiled. "Toothless, it's just... You..." My smile disappeared as I saw his tail flip over him. There was no bright red false limb on his tail. Just... Black...

Dread washed over me as I felt my stomach drop. It was...

"Who's Toothless?" A voice sounded from atop another rock just to the right. It was the rider, his bow held down, yet prepared to fire, as he didn't understand my mistake.

My heart began to pound in my chest. For a moment that seemed to drag on forever, we stood in silence, frozen with anticipation. I anticipating the dragon to leap upon me or the rider to shoot me, they anticipating my flight instinct to kick in. And so it did.

Turning around in a quick, unbalanced motion, I stumbled over my feet as I ran down the hill. After yesterday, I knew this part of the forest, and understood where to place my feet. The bounding gait of the Black Devil behind me thundered across the ground while the quicker steps of its rider ran beside it. An arrow hissed past my ear and I veered right, just to hear the scream of the dragon as it prepared its fireball. Then it slammed into a tree just behind me. I ducked beneath a fallen tree, cleared a small boulder, and flew through the forest. Remembering the river gully coming up ahead, I was about to leap over it when another scream sounded behind me and I slipped, falling into the gulley as I tried to dodge the inevitable flames. It exploded against a tree ahead and the two slowed as the line of sight was broken. I pressed myself against the mud wall and remained quiet.

For a moment, everything became still.

Suddenly, the dragon fell into the gully and stumbled, downstream, into the river. I was running again but, this time, the slippery rocks slowed me down. The open space here gave way for the dragon to close our distance. Traveling upstream and uphill, I found it hard to avoid things. Another arrow sliced through my sleeve and cut deep into my right arm. Grasping it in my hand, I blocked the blood and struggled to find a way out.

Along one gully wall, the ground sloped up at an advantageous angle. Pausing to pick up a large rock the size of my fist, I looked back for long enough to see where the dragon was. I threw the rock straight at its face and watched as it closed its eyes waiting for the impact. The rider, too, was distracted by the flying object and I used this chance to crawl out of the gully. They didn't see where I went at first, and while I backed away from the river, I quickened my pace until I was running again. When they heard me, they erupted from the gully and another fireball roared past me. Turning right again, I slipped on the mud and decided to use my weight to leap over the steep decline. Ahead, I made out a cliff, and an arrow stuck in a treetrunk. This time, it served as my final act in this death game. I ran straight for it.

Two arrows hissed past me once more as I grew closer to the cliff. Right as I got mere feet away, my senses cut off, my adrenaline pumping my blood all too fast. My sight was completely heightened for a few moments and I turned around to see where my enemies were behind me. That's when I saw the blue ball racing past. I didn't understand why it was so off, and when I turned to see its target, I saw it explode against a tree just ahead of me and to the left. I skidded to a halt, but it was too late. The wood exploded and splintered the air. Thousands of tiny slivers stuck into my fur coat, and while the tiny ones were stopped by it, the larger splinters cut into my arms and left side. Then, time slowed to a crawl as I watched a horrendously large piece of wood flying at my face. It launched straight into my left eye right and my hand flew up to cover my face. Then the wave of fire hit me and I found my left side burning.

I screamed. My mind flooded with the pain as I felt my skin melting. Then I remembered the cliff and leapt over it. Although one might think I'd fall into the icy waters below, I, instead, fell onto a slim, but flexible tree branch. Grabbing it with my right hand, I felt the cold, salt water ridden wind as I slammed against the cliff-face. Letting go, I dropped down onto a ledge, the rocks scraping against my back as I ducked into a large crevice to my right. Here, there was a cave I'd managed to check out the day before. When I got inside, I covered my mouth with my right hand and rolled on the ground until the flames were completely out. With my other hand still covering my left eye, I felt the splinter planted deep in my cornea. I began whimpering loudly.

Then the Night Fury's wing flashed over the cave entrance, its eyes missing my location. I froze and silenced myself. I stood up and eased to the edge of the cave, watching the dragon and its rider fly over the water, searching for my body. They also took to flying by the base of cliff to look for me amongst the rocks, but found nothing. The rider yelled in a rage and guided his dragon back to the island. I stood there for a moment, my muscles locked up in shock. After a moment, I let out a great sigh of relief.

Taking deep breaths to calm my pounding heart, I felt the adrenaline cease. I began to relax again. But there was still the matter of the splinter in my eye. I reached a hand up and held the end of the splinter in the tips of my fingers. With my left hand still over my eye, I eased it out, my face contorting with pain. I resisted yelling for fear of the rider returning, but once it was out, I closed my eye and cried, allowing my pain to exit in my tears. It hurt, a lot, and I felt like I'd just pulled my eye out. It was weird and painful and I sat there crying for ages.

After a while, I stopped crying and stood back up to look around. I'd never explored the inside of this cave, afraid of becoming lost within, but I did know the ledge extended back up to the top of the cliff. Pressing myself against the rocks once more, I shimmied left, my hand still over my eye. It took a lot of time as I dragged myself up to another ledge, and once more later on, until I reached the top of the cliff. Shivering in the cold and from the fear of the duo returning, I stumbled along the edge of the woods until I could see Berk once more. I pressed myself against a tree so that anyone in the woods could not see me and I controlled my shivering until it stopped. I took a deep breath and removed my hand from my eye, while still keeping it closed. Then I sprinted for the village. My muscles ached as I ran for the closest building, feeling the eyes of the devil watching me. And when I reached it, I couldn't bring myself to stop, running straight into the village until I slammed into someone. We fell into a heap and I leapt back to my feet, only to trip backwards. I panted and shook violently as I saw Tuffnut looking at me. And although he was staring at me, he said nothing. Instead, his mouth gaped slightly. He quickly stood up and offered a hand to help me up, never once taking his eyes off me. I took it and stood up, placing one hand against my chest to control my breathing and the other on his shoulder to support myself.

"Kelda! _There _you are!" Hiccup was walking up to me, then stopped and gasped, "What happened?"

From the top of one of the buildings, Toothless dropped in to see what going and, once we locked eyes, I felt my body crumpling under me, my mind going blank.

**(page break)**

My legs ached and my left side was sensitive when I woke up again. It was only a few minutes later and I was laying in the grass with Tuffnut, Hiccup, and Toothless gathered around me. Nobody else had really noticed what happened yet, as far as I could tell. But I couldn't see anything out of my left eye.

"Good, she's awake," Hiccup was the first to speak. He and Tuffnut let out a sigh of relief.

Tuffnut chuckled, "You really scared us for a minute."

"You okay?" Hiccup said.

"Do _you_ think she looks ok? Why even ask her, idiot?" Tuffnut said to Hiccup.

Confused, I asked, "What's the matter?"

"Your _eye_ is bleeding, dude!" Tuffnut said.

Now that I thought about it, the area around my eye did feel wet. Taking a hand and rubbing my eye, I looked at my fingers and saw they were bright red. "Ah! Oh Odin! No wonder I can't see!" I sat up and tried to wipe the blood from my vision.

"You can't see...?" Hiccup said, a dread lingered in his voice.

I stood up and turned around, "No! That's not it! I can see fine! It's just all this blood in my eye...!" I started rubbing my eye more. Tuffnut came up and held my face still with one hand, motioning for Hiccup. With his other hand, he pushed my hand away and opened my eye. I instinctively closed my right eye while they examined my left.

"Don't move..." Tuffnut said right before he ran a thumb across my cornea. My face contorted again and I made a pained, sucking hiss at the sensation of my eyeball being touched. Opening my right eye ever so slightly, I saw him turn to Hiccup with a concerned look.

"Sorry, Kelda..." Hiccup said finally and I opened my eyes, wide with realization.

When Tuffnut took his hands away, my body slumped, "B-but... I can't... It's-" My eyes began welling up again. "It's not fair..."

"There's a cut right down your eye, there's no way it could be anything else..." Hiccup said.

I held back the tears this time, however. Instead, I just stood there. The blood crept down my cheek like tears and I covered my eye. "I-I need some bandages..." I finally said, and pushed past the two. Walking off, I made my way to the Old Wrinkly's house. He asked for an explanation, but I merely held out the herbs I'd gathered and shook my head. The old man wrapped the bandages around my head and tied it down.

When I went back outside, I knew I wouldn't be able to walk very far. Instead, I turned and dropped, sitting just a few feet away from the door. I drew my legs up in front of me and rested my chin on my knees. I wanted to cry, but I also wanted to break something. I was sad, but I was so angry, too.

"Thor Almighty!" someone cried and took off down the road. I lifted my head and leaned around the corner of the building, but was startled when a massive, brown shape tumbled down the hill. When I turned to look, Falkor's nose smacked me in the face and he was growling and snorting, smelling the blood from my eye.

I tried to push him back but he wouldn't budge, too concerned for my safety. After a moment of this, he looked up and wheeled around, growling at a small crowd that had gathered around. Falkor shook his wings and stood over me.

"Kelda! _What_ is going on with your dragon?" Fishlegs called around him.

Falkor turned and snapped his jaws at someone who'd come unfortunately close to his tail.

"Falkor!" I leapt up and ran around to his front side. "What's the matter with you?"

He looked down at me and stopped growling, but the dragon had an intense look in his eyes.

"I don't know," I told him and watched as the people stood there, watching the scene. "Could you go somewhere else?" I said to the onlookers.

Falkor rustled his wings again and stomped on the ground. A low, almost inaudible rumbling started up from his throat.

"What do you want, Fishlegs?" I said, doing my best to ignore my dragon.

He seemed to have forgotten what he wanted to say, though. All he did was stare at me.

"Fishlegs?"

"What? Oh, sorry. What happened?" he asked.

I looked away and said, "Nothing. What do you want?"

"Your dragon is acting crazy today. We only got back here a few hours ago, but _one_ hour ago, that dragon up and takes off into the forest, nearly destroying one of the buildings we're trying to fix. _Now_ your dragon comes barreling in here tryin' to run people over!" He seemed mad, but I didn't know anymore than he did.

"Look, I only _just_ got back and I don't even-" I realized something. Turning around to look at Falkor. "You said he ran out of the village just an hour ago?" I noticed Falkor was panting, but only just barely now.

"Yes, what about it?" Fishlegs was still pretty annoyed.

I reached a hand up to stroke the scales on his face and smiled gratefully. The dragon's attention focused on me and he seemed to calm down. I leaned my forehead on his nose and just stood there for a moment. "He just wasn't thinking," I said finally.

"Well, you should-"

"Just forget about it. His reasons were justified."

"If they were justified, why don't you tell me what he was doing?" he raised his voice.

"Because I don't want you to be involved!" I turned to him. "We'll be leaving within a few days and then things will go back to the way they used to be. All right? My business isn't yours."

"What happened to your eye?"

The question was blunt, straightforward. It begged for more information. I looked up at him again and just got angry. But when I spoke, I kept myself under control. "It was just an accident." Falkor picked up on my rage and began growling again. I didn't understand why Fishlegs was so suspicious of me. It was like he was trying to be my enemy. And that was the last thing I needed right now. I stormed off, Falkor following behind me. I gathered all of my things at my campsite and brought them into the village, no longer wanting to sleep out there.

When I thought about the events of that day, I was angry. I couldn't believe I let my guard down. I felt like an idiot. This was no vacation. This was serious. And I paid the price for my childish behavior.

When I went back in the village, I decided to go to Old Wrinkly's house once more, getting some of the poultice he'd made and sat down outside his house. I took Falkor's wing in my hands and scraped away the hardened bits from the last time I'd applied it. In a hushed tone, I recounted the day's events to Falkor, and while he probably didn't understand anything, it just felt good to tell someone. It was getting late, so I didn't expect anyone else to be around. When I was done, I washed my hands off in a bucket of water nearby and sat down beside Falkor once more.

I sighed and reached a hand up to touch my eye. "Falkor, it's about time we went back home. Another few days and we're gone. No more troubling these people with our problems." I stared at the ground for some time, stroking my hair mindlessly.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Falkor move his hand up to his face and scratch his eye. After a minute or two, I looked up to see him purposely digging his claws into his eye. A line of blood ran down his face and I leapt up to pull his hand away. He looked at me and made a sorrowful whine. I wiped the blood away and sat there staring at him for a long time. It hurt to see him do this, but I understood why he did it. He acted like an elder brother to me. Always coming to the rescue when I needed help. I was grateful to have such a friend. I curled up beside him, wrapping my blanket around myself, and fell asleep. I dreamt of my first days knowing him and how free we used to feel.


	7. Chapter 7: Day 6

**AN - All right. Sorry this took an extra week to do. I had a little trouble writing it out. But... Surprising, isn't it? I wasn't sure how to end it but I finally figured it out. I don't have much else to say, so here it is! I hope you guys enjoy it!**

The next morning, I'd woken far earlier than anyone else. It was so early I didn't bother waking Falkor up. Instead, I pulled out my new bow and began shaping it down even more. The blade of my knife grew dull after a while and when I realized how bad it was, the sky had finally lost its orange and pink tones. The morning blaze had died leaving way for a cool sea above through which clouds floated. The door to Old Wrinkly's house opened and I turned to see the doctor step outside. The sound of the door softly screeching on its hinges caused Falkor to wake up. When he lifted his head, he smacked his nose against my back and I turned to look at him. The dragon had a sort of apologetic look but did nothing more.

"Good morning, Kelda," the doctor said.

"A good morning to you," I said tiredly.

"I was hoping to examine your injuries some. You haven't been in much and you seem to attract trouble," the old man chuckled and waved a hand, turning and walking back inside.

"Yeah... Right..." I stood up, leaving the nearly finished bow beside Falkor, and followed him inside. Towards the right side of the room, Old Wrinkly walked up to a wooden table and patted a hand on it. I walked over and sat down, watching as he pulled out a roll of bandages, a white cloth, and a small blade. The first thing he did was take my arm and unravel the bandages already around it. I didn't bother to look at the wound before, but now I saw that it had been stitched together. It was nearly healed.

"Isn't that nice? You must be a quick healer. I figured that'd take a bit longer to seal," Old Wrinkly said and cut the stitching with the blade. I cringed as he did his best to painlessly remove it, but it still hurt. "There we go."

I looked down to see a clean scar, still open in a few places, but mostly healed. The doctor wrapped more bandages around it and tied it off.

"You know, you would've bled to death had Hiccup not brought you to me. Fixed ya up real nice, I did." The old man smiled to himself and wrapped his arms around my head. "Hold still just a moment," he said as he untied the bandages around my eye and pulled back, allowing it to fall around me.

I remained silent, watching as he pulled all the wrapping away and off to a small pile of it. Taking the white cloth in his hand, he held my face still and said, "Just relax now." I would've had he not jabbed his thumb straight into my eye.

I jerked away, grasped my eye, and howled in agony. "What's the matter with you?" I screamed. Tears formed in my eye and slid between the gaps

"I'm cleaning your eye out."

"By shoving it into the back of my head?" While it didn't feel like it was smashed into my head now, it did feel like it'd fall out if I took my hand away.

"You let the blood cake onto your eye. If I don't scrub it off, it'll just be more irritating later on," he said.

We let a silence fall around us for some time after that before I finally took my hand away and looked up at him. Old Wrinkly grabbed my face again and, with a more gentle force, wiped his thumb across my eye. He did this multiple times, adding more pressure each time, until tears ran down my face again from the pain. The doctor let go and walked away. I wiped away all the tears from my cheeks and then held a hand over my eye again. It hurt, but it wasn't so bad anymore. I heard water churning somewhere behind me but I didn't bother to look. No doubt the old man was washing his cloth off. After a short time, he walked back over to me and I looked up to see him holding a mirror. I removed my hand from my face and took the sheet of glass in my hands. Old Wrinkly walked away without a word when I did.

I looked into the mirror and saw my own face. Something I hadn't seen in years. It was much different than I remember. The first thing I noticed was the tan color of my skin. Then I looked up and saw a pair of large eyes. One was a dark, chocolate brown but the other was cloudy white in the center and light red around it. There was a jagged cut right down the center. I looked away for a moment before turning back to see myself again. My lips were slightly larger than those I'd ever seen on another lady and I pulled my braid over my shoulder to see it in the mirror. I was fascinated with looking at myself in this new way. For a long time, I sat there, holding the mirror up to my face.

I was startled when someone tapped me on my left shoulder. Nearly dropping the mirror, I turned to see Tuffnut standing beside me. "Oh, it's just you..." I gasped out.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. But I do have a surprise for you!" He smiled and I could feel how excited he was.

I wasn't sure I wanted any more surprises, but it couldn't really be a bad thing. I set the mirror down on the table beside me and followed Tuffnut to the door. Right as I was about to step through, however, Old Wrinkly called my name and rushed over to me.

"Do you want me to patch that eye up again, too?" he asked.

"No, it's fine," I said and continued outside. Falkor was no longer lying outside and I wondered if he had anything to do with this surprise.

Tuffnut lead the way down the hill. We turned a corner and walked on until we reached the central bonfire. Although I could hardly tell where we were because of the crowd gathered around the flames. Someone turned to look at us and began cheering and soon the whole crowd was roaring. I stopped in my tracks a few feet outside their circle and watched as the mass parted. Tuffnut turned to smile at me and then moved away to reveal something that stopped my heart.

I was truly surprised to see the rider standing at the center of the crowd. Not only was that shocking enough, but when he saw me, he came running and wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the ground. I was still too shocked to do anything about it, however. When he set me back down, he held me at arms length and said, "Kelda, I'm so glad to see you again!"

"W-what are you doing here?" I said when I finally got myself to react. I was so confused and I wanted to kill him right then and there, but I was scared to death.

"I came to find you!"

That much was true, but in that moment, it finally clicked. He didn't wanted to start any trouble, either. I was already friends with people here and if he killed me, he might rally a whole fleet of vikings. I wasn't sure if they would actually kill this man over my death, but Hiccup and his friends might do something about it.

The rider's beaming smile was perfectly maintained. It was so flawless a ruse, I might've been fooled had he never tried to kill me before. I didn't like what I did, but I knew supporting his trick would be better for everyone than going against it. So I smiled and reached my arms around his chest. With the side of my face against his shoulder, I said, "It's great to see you again." Lie. It was so hard to resist attacking him.

"Can you believe it?" I heard Tuffnut's voice. I pulled away from the rider and looked at Tuffnut. "Daven flew a long way to find you."

Daven? So that's what his name was.

"It's true. I traveled for days over open ocean before I got here," he said. "I figured something bad happened so I came looking for you. Turns out I was right." His hand came up and rested on my cheek. Daven examined my eye but in a manner no one else had.

"S-so, you guys are friends, right?" Tuffnut said.  
"Yeah, friends... Right..." I replied. Daven's and my eyes locked, and while he had a casual expression, mine wasn't so cool.

Daven withdrew his hand and looked beyond me. "Where are those dragons now?"

"I don't know where Falkor is." I looked down at the ground. It was weird talking to this man in such a casual manner and so I pretended I was talking to someone else. Instict told me to whip my knife out, grab the man and slit his throat. I had to fight the very urge that had kept me alive for so long. My arm twitched and I knew I couldn't stand there for much longer. "I-I'll go and find him." Walking away, I went back to Old Wrinkly's house hoping he might've returned there. When I arrived, the area was still void of anyone. I went down one road and down another and grew weary of my searching, but it was definitely better than seeing the rider... Er, Daven.

Suddenly, a surge of hot breath went down my neck and I tensed before turning around. I saw Falkor standing behind me. I clutched at my heart before reaching up to use him as a crutch.

"You all right, Kelda?" Hiccup said.

I turned see Hiccup standing at Falkor's right side. "Just scared me, is all."

Falkor snorted and stomped on the ground.

"Don't mind him." Hiccup patted Falkor on the side of the neck and stood before me. "Kelda, you're friends with Daven, right?"

"Um," I began. "Yeah, of course."

"Don't lie to me."

I was surprised. "W-what? What do you mean?"

"Kelda, I speak dragonese. Do you know why your dragon's in a bad mood?"

I shook my head.

Hiccup glanced behind him before saying, "He nearly got into a fight with that Night Fury. I had to step in before things turned ugly. And I know what ugly is, believe me."

His joke didn't make me feel any better. I stood there for a moment, looking at him, before finally turning my gaze to the ground.

"Why would he lie about that? Why would _you_ lie about that?" Hiccup reached out and grabbed my arm. "What's really going on here?"

I looked up at him, but then looked off elsewhere. I tried to speak, to say something, but I couldn't make words. After some time, I just sighed, dejected, and said, "Hiccup, I'll be gone. Two or three more days and I'll be gone. When that happens, you can go on worrying about how trade is holding up and- and if the fishing is still good. Me? I'll go back to worrying if I ever see that man again; if I'll survive to see the next day. Life isn't all fun and games. I started thinking I might be able to have a little fun in my life since I've been here. Then this happened-" I motioned to my eye "- and believe me, I learned my lesson." I cringed away from him and took a step back, half-hiding behind Falkor's head.

Hiccup was speechless.

There was an awkward chortling off to my right and Falkor bared his fangs and snarled.

"I found my dragon!" Daven called.

Falkor spun around and I grabbed Hiccup to make him duck. The dragon's tail flew over us in a quick motion and when it stopped, I stood up and walked down to Falkor's side. I glanced around to see the streets were still empty and bitterly said, "What do _you_ want?"

"Temper, temper..." he replied and shook his head. "A fiesty lass you are..."

Did he not see Hiccup? I thought not, since his eyes were locked on mine. "Did you just come to talk? Because I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

"You did a good job fooling everyone. In fact, I'm glad you played along. Wouldn't want to upset these people, now would we?"

"I do hate touchy-feely people," I said.

"That's unfortunate..." He seemed genuinely dissappointed. Then he walked up to me, brought his left hand up to rest under my chin. "I was so looking forward to getting to know you, too." I felt a cold blade brush across my face. I looked to see his hand holding a dagger and shoved him away. Withdrawing my own blade, I was about to charge him until Hiccup ran out from behind Falkor.

"No! Don't do it!" he cried.

Daven turned and started towards the man, "Spying little-"

"Don't you dare!" I stood between the two and held out my blade. I just _had_ to have a dull blade, then.

He sneered and tucked his blade away before stepping back. Glancing around, he quietly said, "This isn't over. I'll kill that you and that little weasel friend." Daven stormed away after that.

I took a deep breath and held my knife down.

"So what? You're just gonna go home and continue your life like this?" Hiccup said after a long silence.

I turned to look at him. "What else can I do? Nobody at home can help me and the only other person with a dragon is the person who wants to kill me. I'm just barely a match for him."

"You can ask for help here." Hiccup stood tall and said, "I'm not much of a fighter, but Toothless and I make a pretty good team. And I can easily ask for help from not only Astrid, but Snotlout, Ruff n' Tuff, and Fishlegs, too. You can't do it alone, Kelda."

I brought my hands to the sides of my head and groaned furiously. "Hiccup! You don't understand!" I walked off a short distance and began pacing. "It's not that simple. I can't just ask for help. You shouldn't even be offering it. You don't even know me."

"I _do_ know you, Kelda!" Hiccup said and stepped into my pacing space.

I scoffed and looked at him from beneath my brow. "You're just saying that."

"Okay, yes, I am," he admitted. "But I still want to help. You'll just get yourself killed going it alone."

"I've survived this long." I turned and walked away.

Hiccup stood there for a moment before coming after me. As we walked down the hill, Hiccup kept doing things with his hands: running them through his hair, twiddling his thumbs, fiddling with his vest. Behind me, Falkor stomped his way along, still in a bad mood.

"Hiccup..." I grew restless of their energy.

"You can't just keep me from being in this fight now! He wants to kill me!"

I scoffed.

"You heard him..."

"You see why I played along? You're all upset now and-"

"Me? Upset? Please! A manly man like me would _never _feel that sort of girly emotion!"

"Yes, of course. You're the manliest man I know..." I said sarcastically and gave him that sort of look to match.

Hiccup just beamed down at me.

We walked on like that until I got back to Old Wrinkly's house where I picked up my bow. The shape was clear, but plain, unlike my previous one. I reached down to detach the string from it and wrapped it around the new one. I gripped the smooth wood in my hands.

"You didn't... make that, did you?"

I looked up at the man and nodded, "Me without a bow is like a fish out of water. Completely helpless."

"I would disagree," he said.

I reached down once more to pull my quiver over my head and pick up my blanket.

"Where are you going?"

"That's not the question to ask. What you should ask is 'what are you doing?' and I'm preparing to stay up all night."

We locked eyes for a moment and I knew what Hiccup wanted to say, but he already knew the answer. So instead, we just stood there, having a silent conversation. Then we simply turned away from each other and parted ways. I wasn't going to leave Berk, I was simply going to dissappear and once I found the places least traversed, nobody would see me the rest of the day.


	8. Chapter 8: Day 7

**AN – All right you guys. Here it is! I'm terribly sorry this was another chapter to be a week late, but not only did I come to be against writing anything (summer's making me lazy! Shame on me!), but I almost forgot what I originally wanted to do for this chapter. But then I figured it out again. Real facepalm for me. But things are really heating up and I can't leave you guys hanging anymore. Although I'm gonna leave you hanging again. Also, did you know Vikings were actually very cleanly people? They bathed once a week, on Saturdays. Don't think I write this without getting some real knowledge on the subject. Now I'm very certain I'll have the neck chapter up next Sunday, but if I don't, message me and nag at me for being lazy and I'll give you a lame excuse that will hopefully appease you. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you find any mistakes, please notify me and I'll change it. I hate grammar error so I'll be thankful. Anyways, enough of my rambling! On to the story!**

The back of my hand pressed against my mouth as I yawned. My eyes teared up a bit and I wiped the corners of my eyes. I never got used to staying up all night. Pulling an arrow from the quiver on my back, I docked it on my bow and took aim at a small target. The string vibrated and the arrow struck just outside the center ring. My lips pursed. I tried again, taking a moment to draw another arrow and pull the string taut. It twanged and sailed through the air. It hit inside the center ring, but close to the first. It was true I had discovered using my right eye to aim gave me much better accuracy, but without my left eye, I had a hard time telling the distance of things.

Falkor grumbled something and I turned to him. Just then, someone tugged on the end of my braid. I whipped around and smacked them in the face with the end of my bow.

"Ow! Jeez!" They said after having fallen backwards. Rubbing his face was the last person I wanted to see.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yes, indeed. Why is your hair so wet?" Daven said. He stood up and brushed any dirt off of himself.

I glared and said nothing.

The man smiled fiendishly and crossed his arms. "Oh... I see. So sorry I missed the show!"

My bowtip smacked him across the cheek. He recoiled again and I saw I left a visible mark this time.

"Quit hitting me!" He said.

"Quit pestering me, you stupid son of a whore," I said.

"Don't you like bastard sons?"

"Why don't you go bathe in fire?"

"I thought I was hot already."

"Eat deadly nightshade!"

"I'll give you something to eat at night."

I shoved him to the ground and before he could stand back up, I pressed my boot to his throat. Anyone around was quickly shielded from sight by Falkor's enormous body. With him silenced, I crouched down to him and said, "You will leave or else you'll start begging for the god's help."

His arm snaked its way up behind my head and around my neck, so that he could have a knife at my throat. Being pulled down, I was forced to pull my foot off his neck. When our heads were side by side, he quietly said, "You and I both know you are more afraid of me than I am of you. Your threats don't frighten me and it would be better for everyone if you just gave yourself up to me."

"Well," I began. "You and I both know that will never happen."

"Kelda?" A voice came from my left. I tensed, afraid of who it might be. I wrenched the knife from Daven's hand and sat up and saw Tuffnut. "What are you...?"

I jumped up and went over to the man, easing him away from the scene. Before I was out of sight, however, I shot Daven a mean look and saw Falkor "accidentally" step on his stomach as he followed us.

"So, is there something you wanted to talk to me about?

"You guys... Uh, you-" He tried to say.

"Oh! Um, that's nothing. Don't- Don't worry about it..."

"I thought you guys were 'just friends.'"

I pulled my braid over my shoulder and stroked it. "Well... That's not actually true."

He sighed.

"Is something wrong?"

"What? No, nothing." There was a short pause before he turned and said, "Could you help me out with some stuff? I've been helping some people load supplies onto their ships and we need some extra hands."

"That's what you wanted?" I said.

"I didn't expect to find you, but we could use your help. So how about it?"

"It would help to clear my mind..."

"Great! Let's go then!"

We quickly made our way to the docks where dozens of crates were stacked at the top of the ramp down. There were more boxes than I could count and I wondered how many ships were leaving. There were plenty of people helping out, but definitely not enough. I was thankful to not be the only woman working here, either.

"What's going on? Why are there so many crates?" I asked as I picked one up and held it on my hip.

"You don't know? It's the summer solstice!" He said. He lifted a crate onto his shoulder and tucked another under his arm.

"It is?" I'd completely lost track of time. I had no idea it was already so far into June.

"Come on, Kelda! Are you helping or not?" Tuffnut was halfway down the ramp already. He shocked me out of my thoughts and I hurried after him. It all made sense. Most people increased trading around and during the summer solstice. If all these people are out trading, then there will be less people here to protect the village. And to protect me.

**(page break)**

Later, as the sun neared the horizon and the crates had been loaded onto the boats, the real festivities began. I didn't even notice how much everyone was planning for this. Bright ribbons of dyed cloth stretched between houses, mostly around the central bonfire, and a small band was playing cheerful songs. In one large area, people danced to the music in pairs, while others drank mead and joked around. By the bonfire stood the one group of people I actually enjoyed being with. With Tuffnut walking beside me, their eyes found us quickly and they waved us over.

"Try to stay out of trouble, all right?" I said to Falkor. After patting him on the shoulder, I turned and walked away from him to join the group of vikings.

As we approached, Tuffnut smiled and said, "And now the real fun begins!"

I looked from him to the group and back. I hoped none of this "fun" had to include me.

"Hey guys! Busy day, huh?" Fishlegs said when we joined their circle.

"Yeah," Tuffnut said. "But I did get Kelda to help out at the docks."

"Oh really?" Ruffnut said. "Or were you-"

"Ruff! Cut that out!" He shoved her.

"Why don't you make me?" She shoved him back and they locked eyes.

Snotlout stepped between them and said, "Come on, you guys. No fighting today!"

"Yeah! Just have fun and _enjoy_ yourselfs!" Astrid chimed in.

The twins backed down for the time being and calmed down. It helped that they were separated by Snotlout.

"I think the feast is about to start so how about we get inside," Hiccup suggested.

"Yeah, you're right," Fishlegs said. "Let's get something to eat before it's all gone."

We found our way to the mead hall and went inside. Not much was different except for all of the tables were all combined into one large table. Going around to the serving tables, we gathered our meals and found seats nearer the end of the giant table. No more than a few minutes later, others started to gather around us and within good time, the table was filled with loud vikings. At the end we were on, Stoick came up and stood at the end of the table and everyone fell silent. Before he could say anything, Daven sat down right across from me. Then he began to speak.

"It's only been half a year now, but it's been a great one. We are in the gods' favor as our crops have grown, our livestock are well, trade is good, and our men are strong. So now is the time for celebration and time to pray for a bountiful harvest when the time comes. We eat!"

Everyone began wolfing down their food almost instantaneously. I took more time with eating, my stomach less empty since Daven sat down. My eyes were carefully locked on him the entire time we ate and once we all had finished our food and the conversation started, I was able to take my eyes away.

"So, how long have you two known each other?" Astrid asked.

"Me and Kelda? Oh, it's been years..." He smiled as if reminiscing. "We first _really _met when we were about... 10 years old?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I feel like I've known you all my life," I lied. Our eyes locked. My expression was neutral, but he had such a gentle smile that he fooled all around. All but Hiccup, of course.

When I turned to look, Astrid was looking between us, with an eyebrow raised and a smile on her face.

"What?" I asked calmly.

"Oh, nothing..." She turned away, still smiling to herself.

Confused, I shook my head and looked for more conversation. "What do you guys do during the summer solstice?"

"It's not much different from this, honestly," Daven said.

"Yeah, feasting, dancing, drinking. We give our thanks to the land and sometimes give offerings to the gods. We also like to give flowers to each other."

"Do you give each other flowers?" Ruff asked.

"No," I said.

I was certain Daven would say "yes". Instead, he said, "Yeah, defenders of the village means no fun for us."

My hand tightened its grip on my stein of mead. Any tolerance I had for this man was quickly growing smaller by the minute. Inside, I felt a rage like no other stirring and it burned in my chest. I stood up and left the table, heading outside where the music played. The people had already come to gather outside and the area was quite crowded. I really just wanted to be alone, but someone gently grabbed my arm from behind.

Before I could do anything, I heard Hiccup's voice. "Kelda. You don't have to keep this a secret from us."

I pulled away and walked on to find my dragon. Walking out to where Tuffnut and I came in, I called out, "Falkor!"

"Kelda!"

Falkor didn't come and I stood there for a minute until Hiccup came up behind me. "Falkor!" I called again. I started walking off, but Hiccup grabbed my arm firmly this time.

"Kelda, please. Let us help you," Hiccup said.

"All right. You help me kill him this time. What then? He's not the end of my enemies. People come from all over all the time and I have to chase them off. Some people don't want to leave. I have to kill them and some have the ability to kill _me_! He is not the end of this. And what if there are more riders where he comes from? Just as strong as he is. What then?"

Hiccup was stunned by my reaction.

"You just don't get it, do you?" I said. "You have all these people who are skilled in fighting and completely armed. My people are nomads who live off the land. We don't have a forge, and hardly anyone knows how to fight. I am their protector and its a full-time job. Daven is my prime enemy, but he isn't my only one."

Just then, we were startled by the low growling of a dragon nearby. Standing in the shadow of one of the houses stood Falkor. He slowly approached, a limp in his gait. I was in shock, but I rushed over to him, pushing him back into the shadows where my eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. The wounds on his leg had opened up again along with some new ones. On his chest was savage bite marks and his right side had a deep gash. His wings were completely clean, however, and I was thankful.

"Daven's dragon..." Hiccup looked like he'd seen a ghost. The horror on his face was like none other.

"What about my dragon?"

I snapped. In a blind rage, I charged, my knife exposed. Tackling him to the ground, I was about to stab him when Hiccup lifted me off the man's chest and pulled me away, still kicking and yelling. Daven stood back up, obviously enraged by my actions. When I managed to calm down enough to make sensible words, I yelled at him, "I've had enough with you! I'm not going to take this anymore. You will leave this place or I will throw you off this rock myself!"

This time I could see something registered in him. When he took a step back, I knew he was backing down. After staring him down for some time, he finally retreated from sight. I turned to Hiccup to see him standing away from me. From the expression on his face, he was confused and scared. Because of me.

"What did you just say to him?"

"What do you mean?" This time, _I_ was confused.

Shaking his head, he said, "You weren't speaking any plain Norse."

"Oh..." I turned away from him and went over to Falkor.

"Kelda...?" Hiccup said. But I didn't let him finish.

I turned around and said, "We need to patch him up. Forget about what I said and think about a bleeding dragon."

He sighed and waved a hand. "Come on."

"_Without_ alarming anyone," I said when Hiccup started walking out into the festivities.

"Right." We turned and did not return to the celebration.We found our way to Old Wrinkly's house where the old man was missing from. With my knowledge of basic medicine, I cleaned Falkor's wounds and stitched up the large ones. I disregarded any questions Hiccup had about me and only focused on helping my dragon. I didn't doubt that Daven's dragon was worse off, but I'm sure I would come to know in good time.

After we'd done everything we could to help him, Hiccup and I parted ways and I found myself tremendously exhausted. I found a quiet, out of the way place to lay my head and fall asleep for the night. All I could do was hope Daven was truly gone. That night, I dreamt of terrible things killing everyone in my village.

**(page break)**

I woke up in the middle of the night and found I could not fall back asleep. Upset by my dreams, I was about to go on a walk until a pair of hands shot out from behind me and grabbed me. A left hand covered my mouth and a right wrapped all the way around my neck to hold a knife on my juggular vein.

"Scream and you're dead."


	9. Chapter 9: Day 8

**AN – Ah, the problem with fight scenes. It can go a million different ways. But how does one get from the desired point A to point B? You can do this, but wait! What does that say to the readers? As you can tell, I had a hard time with this chapter. Originally, I wanted to do more fighting in the air, but Falkor can't fly, right? So, instead, I did this. I find it much better than anything else I could have written. To clarify, Daven is a far better fighter than Kelda ever was. Thing is, he was too proud to come off his high dragon (horse) and really fight her. Here, he's forced to. Falkor was the main force keeping Kelda alive. If he weren't there or he were any other dragon, she'd be dead long ago. Trust me, she's got the scars to prove it. So I present you, the final battle! I'm not so sure about this chapter so a review would really relieve me of my worries of living up to your expectations. Although I do still hope you enjoy it.**

Daven dragged me long and far from the village of Berk. He didn't want anyone to find out what was really going on. Deep into the forest, away from any and all prying eyes, I found a group of men standing around a fire. Nearby, sleeping all in one mass was a group of dragons, each different from each other. The one I did not see was the Black Devil. The men started laughing as I was pushed onwards. Daven took his hand off my mouth and waved at them.

"We finally got our little forest girl!" he said.

One of them smiled and said, "What'll you do with her? Take her as your prize?"

He chuckled and stroked my hair with his free hand, "Perhaps."

"In your dreams," I hissed.

"Temper, temper..." Daven said. "You're not in control here and if I don't like your attitude..."

"Death holds more appeal than being in your bed."

"You're gonna have to do something about that mouth of her's," one of the men said.

"I say cut out her tongue!"

They began to laugh. I just felt sick.

"Enough!" Daven yelled. The brutality of his voice shocked me. "She'll be tied up and gagged for the night. Nobody touches her. Is that clear?"

They all said in unison, "Yes, boss." Two of the men came up with a thick rope and and strip of cloth. They tied the cloth around my head so that I couldn't say anything, then they dragged me over to the closest tree and tied me up. The two men went back over to the fire and Daven approached me.

He crouched down and took my face in his hands, "Don't worry. If you're a good little girl, everything will be all right. But if you try to escape, well... I'm free to do whatever I want with my captives, and in my bed is not the worst place to be. Oh, and before I forget..." His other hand reached down into my boot and procured the knife. "Don't want you getting free now, do I?"

All I could do was glare at him. When he took his hand away from my face, I continued glaring. Anyone who looked at me received the same. It wasn't until all the men fell asleep that I let my shoulders sag and my head drop. The only thing I could hope for was for Falkor to come to my rescue. But Daven was too smart to leave the dragon be. He was probably taken care of, one way or another. Sleep came over me as the night drew on and there was nothing to do but welcome it. It was over.

**(page break)**

I was awoken again at dawn with a spear to my chest. The men began untying me and came back to bind my hands in front of me. Daven smacked one of the men and untied my hands to take my quiver off my back. He kept muttering incoherent things and once he took my arrows from me, he casually swung it back and forth on his hand while they rebound me.

"Honestly, I have to do everything myself, don't I?" He roughly took my shoulder in his free hand and led me away. Ahead of us, I saw his dragon standing beside a large wooden box that looked like a bear trap. We continued walking and I began to question Daven's plans for me. That was until he said, "Open the box."

They slid the front panel up and held it there. My heart began to pound in my chest and I stopped moving. Daven tried to push me forward but I wouldn't budge. "What are you doing?" he asked.

I shook my head in response.

"Ah... You don't want to be in our box, do ya?" Daven chuckled to himself. "Well, if you ride on the back of our dragon's, who's to say you won't jump off? So, to ensure you will arrive in our village, we gotta make sure you don't try to kill yourself. Now be a good girl and get in the box."

"It's a bear trap, sir," a voice said.

"I know very well what it is!" Daven yelled savagely. That's when he grabbed the back of my coat and shoved me forward. When we stopped in front of the box, he pushed me on, but I set my feet on the frame to keep myself from going in. The man kept pushing but I pushed back harder. He pulled me back and I dropped to the ground. Then he pushed me forward and I threw my legs up again. "Hold her legs!" Someone else came up to hold me still, but I began thrashing around as they stuffed me in the trap. When they managed to get my whole body in, they slammed the door closed and I was surrounded by darkness.

I reached around and pulled the gag off my head and pressed my back against the door. My legs stretched to the other side of the darkness and my arms reached up to keep the roof from caving in on me. My heartbeat was deafening as fear began to drown me. I began screaming, "LET ME OUT!" only to have the words echo back. I beat against the door with my elbow and kicked against the other side. I scrambled around to take a different position and tried to kick the door open but it held firm. The bear trap was well made. The box was collapsing around me and I was squeezed tighter and tighter.

Then something smacked into the box. I yelped and scrambled around inside, confused and scared. A dragon roared outside and there were men shouting. I would've tried to listen had I not begun hyperventilating. It became harder and harder to breathe. Suddenly, the door slid open and my foot shot out. I was too panicked to take notice, however. Instead, a hand grabbed my ankle and forcfully drug me out of the box, shocking me back into reality.

Outside, Astrid took my face in her hands and yelled, "Kelda! Focus on me!"

I gasped and began to breathe again. "A-Ast-" I tried to speak.

"That's better," she said and cut the rope around my wrists. "Take this and help us out now!" Astrid shoved a dagger into my hands and took off. When I looked around, I saw a battle taking place around me.

One of the enemy dragons landed behind me and the rider with the spear began to charge. In the last possible moment, I turned away from the spear's point and grabbed it. Dropping my dagger to grip the shaft with my other hand, I took a firm stance and shoved the rider off his dragon. Once he was down, I drove the spear into his chest and yanked it back out. He coughed and wheezed and tried to take in air, but only began shaking furiously as he died.

I looked around myself wildly as I tried to make sense of the scene. Everything was a mess and I couldn't see what was happening. When I saw Falkor, I took off for him. That was until I felt a searing pain. I screamed as I looked to see a sword planted deep in my stomach. With tears welling up in my eyes, I grabbed the blade and looked Daven in the eye. We had a stare off for a moment as I tried to keep the blade in my flesh, but with a firm pull, Daven took it back. And I began bleeding out. Ignoring the pain, I twirled the spear in my hands and forced him back, then swiped the air in front of him. He stepped back again and I brought the spear around and knocked him on his back. I ran up and planted my foot on him, then pulled my quiver over his head.

He yelled and then tugged on my foot and caused me to fall over beside him. Daven stood and whistled. I tried to flip over and stand up, but he took hold of the front of my coat, crushed my hand with the spear, and threw me over his dragon's back. When he mounted, the dragon took an upwards leap into the air and took off for the open sea. We passed over the mountain and disappeared from sight.

Daven would have liked to believe we had escaped, but behind us was two dragons. Toothless and Falkor. I was amazed.

The rider growled and brought his knife down into my back. I screamed and tears streamed down my face.

"Let her go!" Hiccup yelled over the wind.

"NO!" Daven screamed back. "I won't have her ruining his plans!"

A fireball flew at us and the Black Devil twirled to evade it. Only I slid from his back in the process. Daven's hand reached out and grabbed my braid. I yelled in pain and gnashed my teeth. I cursed myself for having such long hair. There was only one thing I could do. Ripping the knife from my back, I grabbed hold of my hair and sliced through the fibers. Then I was plummetting. Above me, I saw a stunned Daven. Hiccup began to dive after me, but Falkor was already closing in. The dragon dived straight down and drew closer to me until I was able to grab on and hook my legs under his wings. Then he turned up and set his sights on the Black Devil.

"Kelda!" Hiccup yelled and threw something. I reached out and caught a bow. My own; left in the streets the night before. I looked up at him in astonishment, but knew what I had to do.

Pulling an arrow from my quiver, I docked the bow and took aim. Falkor flew higher and higher until I was able to get a clear shot. The string vibrated and the arrow hissed through the air until it sank it's teeth into the rider's back. It struck deep into the back of his chest and he began to slide from his saddle.

Hiccup dived down to catch the man, but Falkor's target went unchanged. I shot another arrow into the dragon's back and it faltered enough for Falkor to catch up. He had no mercy. The dragon unleashed a fury like none other and grabbed the Black Devil in his claws. It struggled to be free but Falkor roared and sank its teeth into the back of its neck and twisted. The unsettling sound of bones crunching in his jaws signified the final defeat of the Black Devil. It began to fall. Down into the vast blue expanse, turning over itself as it lost all control.

Falkor turned back towards the island and flew as fast as he could. When we closed it on the fight, still ongoing, he dived down and unleased hot flames on the enemy. I leapt off his back and knocked off a rider targetting Fishlegs. When the man was down, I leapt off his dragon's back and dropped onto him, planting a foot onto his chest that broke a few ribs. The I shot an arrow into his heart and watched as the last of the dragons fell. For a moment, my head felt weird and my eyesight became blotched, but with a shake of my head the feeling was gone.

When Hiccup landed, he dropped Daven on the ground and pressed a foot into his back. The man groaned and coughed up some blood.

I walked over and waved my hand. "He's fine, Hiccup. Let him sit up."

Hiccup looked up at me before hesitantly taking his foot away. Daven slowly picked himself off the ground and into a sitting position. Then he spoke in our native tongue, "So you finally got me. With the help of your stupid friends."

"Quiet!" I yelled. "What were you talking about before? About 'not letting me ruin his plans'?"

He stared at me for some time before taking a breath. "My king. He plans on ruling every living thing. We're not doing so bad, either. Already conquered a lot of land."

"And no doubt you're not the only rider."

"You saw my friends. We have plenty of other riders. It's only a matter of time before someone as strong as me comes after you again."

"Where is your king?"

That's when a cruel smile crossed his face. "You really think I'd tell you that?" He began laughing. And laughing. And laughing. The man didn't seem like he'd ever stop. He only paused for a moment to yell at the top of his lungs, "He will rule you all! Just you wait and see!" And he continued laughing like a madman.

It was horrifying. Wrapping a hand around his throat, I stabbed a knife deep into the left side of his neck and it exploded with blood. It splattered into my face and I quickly shut my eyes. Through the sounds of him coughing and sputtering, I heard a disgusting laughter, even though all the came out of his mouth was blood. Within seconds, he fell on his side. Silent.

"What did he say?" I heard Astrid say quietly.

"He is led by a power-hungry king," I struggled to say. "One who intends to conquer all the lands."

"They can't possibly be as successful as the Romans, can they?" Fishlegs said.

"Well, they have a force of powerful dragon riders behind them. With that, they could overtake the Romans."

"What will we do?"

"I'm not sure..."

"We need to..."

The voices began to fade away, though nobody moved from their spots. My head began feeling strange again; black spots clouded my vision. I pressed a hand to my head to try and focus, but everything seemed to spin around me. Then my heart started beating wildly, completely ignoring its natural rhythm. I stopped breathing. I clutched at my chest and pressed a hand to my stomach to find it soaked with blood. I began to panic. I reached out for someone, anyone, but only fell into the earth. Darkness surrounded me. My body began curling up. I did everything in my power to stop the blood, to breathe, to make my heart beat, but it all failed. My voice even failed me then. I was scared. All I could do was let the darkness take me in. A deathly chill spread through my body. My legs began to relax. It started in my toes, working its way up into my calves, knees, thighs. Then I felt it jump into my fingers and up my arms. I was frozen in a darkness like no other. And I was alone.


	10. Chapter 10: Day 11

**AN – All right! I'm going against my moral code (more like set standards for how I've been uploading this) and giving you the next chapter NOT on a Sunday! I didn't upload it when I was supposed to because my wireless internet stopped working and I sooo did not want to move my computer so I could use the ethernet. But I finally got it back, so here's the next chapter! I'm going to upload an epilogue just in case you people think it stops there. It will be up this Sunday unless I'm too busy to update it then. If so, I'll just say "screw it" and upload it Monday. Hooray for neglecting set schedules! But anyways... On to the story! I hope you all enjoy it!**

I felt so warm. For the first time in a long time, I was completely surrounded by warmth. It filled my stomach and spread all the way into my fingers and toes. It was a fuzzy feeling. Like being surrounded by bear fur. The one thing that should have unsettled me was not being able to move. I would have grown fearful, but there was a sense of happiness and calm just filling me up. It was as if the warmth I felt brought me joy and ease of mind. My previous, worldly worries just faded away.

I was at peace.

"Kelda..." A feminine voice rang from the empty space.

I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by white light. Suprisingly, it didn't bother my eyes. Beside me sat a tan-skinned woman with long, black hair topped by a large headdress of colorful feathers. She seemed surreal, and yet was so familiar. My thoughts were instantly latched on an old folk tale of the woman with the colorful feathers.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Asteria. And you cannot allow yourself to die."

"What?"

"This place is comforting once you come to it, but you do not belong here," she said. Asteria took my hand and gripped it around the thumb. "You need a successor before you can come back. One as competent at fighting as you are."

"But I'm no _good_ at fighting! Surely you know."

"The true measure of a guardian is not how skilled she is, but how determined she is to protect her people."

All I could do was look at her.

The woman removed her headdress and held it towards me. "You have earned it."

**(page break)**

I sudden heaviness befell me. When I tried to move, I found it hard. After focusing for some time, I finally began twitching my fingers and wiggling my toes. I slowly opened my eyes to dim light from an unknown source. My hands began flexing as I moved my arms around. My legs, however, were much more difficult to move. Opening my mouth, I tried to speak but only created a rasping sound. My chest felt heavy when I became aware of it. The last thing I felt as I woke up was my stomach. I tensed the muscles in my abdomen and a strange pain flashed through me. My stomach seemed to dip into numbness afterwards and I decided not to do that again.

I slowly scanned the space around me and found it empty. After a moment, I opened my mouth again and tried to speak. All I got out was a weak "hello". I took some time to breathe. With a gulp of saliva, I opened my mouth again and managed a clearer word. Although it was still barely audible. Look around again, I found a small table to my left. Sitting on top was a white cloth and a metal mug.

I slowly moved my arm up and grasped the handle of the mug. The mug eased its was off the table and into the floor. The loud clatter and a small splash of water was sure to attract attention.

There was movement off to my left and within moments, someone came into view.

"What happened here?" Tuffnut said. After noticing my arm draped over the side of the cot, he leaned closer to me and whispered, "Kelda...?"

"Tuffnut. Where am I?"

He reached down and took my hand and placed it back on the cot.

Before he could say anything, however, I let out a soft moan. I didn't notice until now how chilled I actually was. Just the simply touch of his hand sent a warmth up my spine.

"D-did that hurt you?" he said.

"No, you're just really warm. You didn't answer my question..."

"You're at Old Wrinkly's. Uh... How are you feeling?" Tuffnut seemed amazed.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Using my mind, I felt my body, head to toes. "I feel... tired..."

"Really?"

"What?"

"Well, you've been out cold for a couple days now! At one point, you were so cold and pale we lost all hope."

"Then why are you here?"

"I don't know."

I just looked at him for a while before I started pushing myself up. The awkward pain in my stomach wouldn't stop me now.

"What are you doing?" Tuffnut became really tense.

"What does it look like?" I said and began to sit up.

"Uh..." Tuffnut stood up and then took off into another room.

I was confused. Sure, it wasn't too good to get up then, but there was no need to freak out. As the blanket began to slip down, I saw I wasn't wearing my shirt. I immediately pulled it back up and held it against my chest. When I looked down again, there across the very top of my chest was a long bandage. I moved the blanket some and found a wide bandage all across my stomach. The front was bloody, but not as bad and I expected. For a moment, I began to think how I could possibly be alive now. When I looked again, I saw I was still wearing my pants. I sighed with relief.

"Why is she getting up? Why are you getting up?" Old Wrinkly said as he walked in the room. "You're wounds still need to heal!"

"I need to see Falkor," I replied.

"Under any other circumstance, I would let you go because, frankly, you scare me. But now that you're my patient, I'm adament when I say you are not getting up!" He leaned down and picked up the metal mug and set it back on the table. Then he took a cloth from his shoulder and unfolded it.

"My shirt!"

"Blood and all. You want it?"

I looked at him expectantly.

"Well, you're not getting it," he said and turned away. "Tuffnut, clean up that water for me."

"All right."

"Lay back down!" The doctor ordered me and walked off.

Grudgingly, I did as he said and folded my arms over my stomach. Tuffnut took the cloth off the table and sponged the water up and walked away. After a few minutes, Old Wrinkly came back with a hot bowl of some broth.

"If you're feeling well enough, you should eat," he said and walked off again.

I reached over and took the bowl in my hands. The warmth of it felt so wonderful. I sipped some of the water and felt it move down into my stomach. There was an unsettling feeling. It was clear I was not ready to eat yet and I set the bowl down on my ribs. The heat pierced through the blanket and kept me warm. After some time, I found myself drifting back asleep.

**(page break)**

I next woke up to a door slamming shut. It startled me into conciousness and I lifted up some. Walking across the room was Hiccup. He almost walked by me without one glance, but my motion caught his eye. He stopped in his tracks and smiled.

"Hey Kelda...!" His voice was quiet, but full of energy. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess," I said and laid back down.

Hiccup nodded and left the room before coming back with a bowl. He held it out for me and said, "You can eat now, right?"

"I'll try," I said, taking the bowl. I brought it up to my lips and sipped some of the water. The heat traveled down into my stomach. This time, I did not have an unsettling feeling. Sitting up some, I took a drink and waited. Again, everything felt fine. I started to sit up to eat it properly, but stopped when I remembered.

"Can you go steal my shirt from Old Wrinkly?" I asked Hiccup.

"He won't give it to you?" He, too, became tense over this fact.

I shook my head in response and gave him a pleading look.

"All right, I'll go get it," he said and snuck away. After a few minutes, he walked back in the room and tossed me my shirt, then disappeared again.

Setting the bowl down on the table, I carefully moved to sit up and quickly pulled my shirt on. My stomach bandages were fresh and clean. I pulled the bowl back into my lap and began drinking down the water. With a small fork resting in the broth, I picked up some small chunks of meat and ate them. The more I ate, the better I felt. It was wonderful. Soon, the broth was gone and I set the bowl back on the table. Hiccup came back into the room after a moment and picked up my bowl.

"You sure were hungry," he said.

"I feel like I haven't eaten in days."

"And you haven't." Hiccup whisked the bowl away and came back, "After Tuffnut told up you woke up after having been asleep for three days, you were asleep for another two days."

"Really?" I was amazed.

"Yeah. Old Wrinkly said it's 'cause your body needs to heal itself, but that's a lot of time to be asleep for."

I swung my legs over the side of the cot and pushed myself to stand up. There was a bit of a head rush from standing up too fast, but I countered the feeling by leaning over. When the hair fell around my face, I remembered what happened. I stood back up straight and tried to pull my hair over my shoulder, but it was too short.

"I know someone who's eager to see you..." Hiccup said after a minute of me fumbling over my hair. When I looked at him, he smiled and said, "Come on!"

I followed him outside and found Falkor sitting strong and tall outside. He was posed as if guarding the door. His head snapped back when the door opened and when he saw me his eyes lit up. The dragon stood up and turned to face me and began sniffing me and moving his head all around me. He smacked me in the face at least a dozen times and I laughed and tried to hold his head back.

"Falkor, cut it out!" I said with a smile on my face. It was good to see him again. After a few minutes, he calmed down and stood still.

"Told you," Hiccup said and chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at him and went around to Falkor's side. I unfolded his wing and looked at where the hole previously was and found it completely sealed up. I took my time examining it from every angle until I was satisfied it was no illusion. It was hard to believe it healed so fast.

"Where is everyone?"

"Probably off eating. They'll be so excited to see that you're awake!" Hiccup took me by the hand and started to lead me away but I pulled away. When he turned back, he looked confused. "Well, don't you want to see everyone?"

"No."

We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other. Then his shoulders sagged. "You're leaving...?"

"Falkor can fly now and I'm awake and well enough to eat. There's no reason I shouldn't go back." I stepped back towards Falkor's side.

"Well, can't you stay the rest of the day? Give us all a chance to say good bye."

"I've been away nearly two weeks now. I'm their sole defender and they may have moved on without me. If I don't leave now, I may never find them."

"Wait! Please! Just wait a minute!" He ran off.

I stood there for ten minutes. But I was patient. Finally, he returned with Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and his wife. Astrid approached me and from behind her back, presented me with a spear.

"I got a chance to see the way you handled that spear before and I figured you deserve one made by us at Berk. It was great to meet you," she said.

I stared at her for a minute before slowly taking the spear from her hands. She moved back into the group before I could properly thank her.

Snotlout came up to me next and pulled from behind his back a small boquet of flowers. "Well, since girls like flowers, I was thinking you'd like this..." Snotlout said and thrust them towards me.

When I took them, I tried to thank him but he left too quickly, too.

Ruffnut approached me and held up a coat laid across her arms. "I had some of the weavers make you a new coat. Your last one sorta soaked up all the blood," she said with a chuckle. I took it from her arms and pulled it on. It fit like a glove. She left in the same moment. When she returned to the group, she nudged her brother on the arm. When he didn't respond, she shoved him and quietly said, "If you don't do it now, you're never gonna have another chance!"

He shoved his sister back and said something I couldn't hear. Then he walked up. In one quick motion, he grabbed my face and kissed me. It took me by surprise and I didn't respond. When he pulled away, he said, "I hope that's reason enough to come back."

"Y-yeah..." I said. "I guess it is..." I had no idea what to say. I was thankful for him to quickly retreat into the safety of the group.

"Fishlegs, it's time," Hiccup said and the man took off. He came and stood in front of me. "It was great knowing you Kelda. You'll come back sometime, right?"

"If I ever get the chance, I'll try and come. I can't promise anything, though..." I said dejectedly. "It has been good knowing you, Hiccup. And you, Astrid, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff. And Fishlegs... Wherever he is..."

"Just wait a minute," Hiccup said. We waited at least three. Fishlegs finally came up the hill carrying a large box. He set it down just before me and and I was dumbfounded.

"You can really expect me to take this?" I said.

Fishlegs stood up straight. "Kelda, I'm sorry for being such a jerk. Just careful about the village and all. But this is a gift from all of us."

"And we're not taking 'no' for an answer," Hiccup added.

I leaned down to examine the box. Other than the large, leather throng tied through the top, it was plain. "What is it?"

"That! That's a surprise." Hiccup grinned.

"But you'll really want to put that back on the fire as soon as possible."

Fishlegs' remark confused me and it showed on my face. I looked down at the box again and stepped back. "I guess that means I should really head off now."

"Ah! Right!" Tuffnut excaimed and rushed into Old Wrinkly's house for a minute. When he returned, he had my bow, quiver, boots, and dagger. "Can't leave without these."

I laughed. Shaking my head, I said, "Of course! I thought my feet were a little cold!" I pulled on my remaining equipment and leapt up Falkor's shoulder to sit on his back. Falkor shook his wings and spread them, ready to fly. I looked down at them and smiled, "Farewell." The dragon grabbed onto the box with his hand and beat his wings. We climbed higher and higher into the sky as we flew across the island.

Soon, we were speeding over the ocean. The waves below reached high, as if to swallow us up. But we were safe now. For the time being, at least. I didn't fear opening my wound again. I was strong. It took some time to get back home. When we got back to our initial campsite, our possessions were gone. I looked up at Falkor in dismay, but mounted and went off in search of the nomads. They had not moved from their spot. Afraid of what may happen. Everyone seemed relieved to discover we were alive and well. And when we opened the box to put the gift on the fire we found something we could not easily give thanks for. A dragon egg.


	11. Chapter 11: Epilogue

**AN – Just to answer any questions or assumptions you might have: No, the dragon is not a Night Fury. Hiccup and Daven were the only known riders of one and Daven's was killed. Night Furies are rare and thus, there is no other in Berk (even after 10 years). The dragon Kelda is given is a White Dragon, taken from the books. I had a hard time choosing what kind of dragon they'd give her and finally chose this one. In order to prevent this from being a rant, see my profile for information about the idea for a sequel to this fanfiction. **

**Disclaimer: **_**How To Train Your Dragon**_**, the movie and the book(s), does not belong to me.**

**Claimer: The story and all original characters belong to me.**

_Hiccup of Stoick,_

_Falkor and I are doing well. The dragon egg you gave me is a young female who I've decided to name Asteria. Her scales are pure white and she is still very small. It's been difficult raising her as she's very rowdy and seemingly hot-headed; it's hard to tell. It will be hard to train her, but I plan on doing my best. She does have Falkor to help teach her, so I'm sure that Asteria will grow to be as strong and powerful as he. _

_Our village is preparing to move back into the Gaulish lands so it will be difficult to contact you for a while as we grow farther apart. These colder months are forcing us to our southern territory and its likely I will not visit during the remainder of the year. I do promise to bring you all lots of nice things upon my return. It's a secret, though, so I won't tell you what it is. Guarding my village has been easier as we haven't had any more trouble from Daven's village. But I fear that won't last long. Every day that passes I get a growing feeling that something worse will come. Nomadic tribes from farther north keeping passing by. Most of the people are weak or injured. I'm not sure what to expect. But for now, things are quiet in my forests._

_I have been observing my people more. I come and watch them every day, looking for strong, determined people. I've found several likely candidates for apprenticeship and plan on training the one Asteria chooses as her rider. One particular person I'm really hoping for. But it will still be some time before Asteria will be mature enough to choose a rider._

_I have found a few of Astrid's students down in my territory. No doubt she sends them to get some real combat training. The first one I was unprepared for and gave them quite a beating. I'm really sorry about that. But it has been easier to tell who's from Astrid and who's a real enemy. Tell her that her students are strong, but are not serious enough. It's obvious in their stance. That's why most of them come back bruised and bloody. I'm sorry that I'm so harsh with them, but I do not want them to be killed in serious combat._

_I expect it will be difficult to respond to my letter, but I could simply send Falkor back soon to retrieve your response. I wish my people were not so stubborn in their ways; that they might come to stay in one place for the rest of their lives. But I can't ask that of my druid. At least, not now._

_Please tell me how your village fares (and how to train your dragon)._

_Kelda of Vanora_


End file.
